Virginia hospitals badly want an expansion of Medicaid — and they say an overwhelming majority of Virginians do, too — but they don’t support a tax on hospital profits proposed in the budget in order to cover more than $300 million of the state’s costs.
Leaders of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association said they do not support a proposal for most acute-care hospitals in the state to pay a provider assessment on net patient revenue to cover the state’s share of expanding health coverage to more than 300,000 uninsured Virginians through its Medicaid program. Then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe proposed it in the budget he submitted almost a month ago.
“We’re not in favor of it,” said Michael V. Gentry, an executive at Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk and chairman of the association’s board of directors, which is scheduled to meet on Wednesday.
