For critics of Virginia’s Medicaid program, recent news from a Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission study that general fund spending on the program has increased $1.7 billion, or 75 percent, during the past decade, is proof that Medicaid cannot be expanded.If it was, the number of new recipients could potentially reach 400,000.Medicaid is a federal-state insurance program for people with limited resources. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, went into effect three years ago. Additional funds for expansion are one of the options under the health care reform law, and the eligibility was expanded under the ACA to 133 percent of federal poverty guidelines. But the choice for expansion is left to individual states.Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel said the federal funds that would flow to the commonwealth from a larger program would help the …
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