Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Several reasons for not expanding Medicaid in Virginia were published in a letter to the editor on Feb. 6. It is important that readers understand the compelling reasons for Virginia to expand Medicaid—without delay.

Virginians are already paying the taxes that allow the federal government to pay for Medicaid expansion. It is estimated that those taxes will amount to $26 billion (with a B!) over the next 10 years. Some of these taxes are in the form of corporate taxes (taxes on the sale of medical devices, insurance plans and drug companies) that will be passed on to the consumer, and others are being directly paid by you (taxes on investment income and Medicare part A and B out of pocket increases). As Virginia’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources, William A. Hazel Jr., M.D. (who was originally appointed by a Republican governor) likes to say, that $26 billion is already loaded onto a barge and is being floated across t...