Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's (D) efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act may not survive a Republican-controlled House and Senate. However, he may have found a new solution to help fund healthcare for the state's poor: the bed tax.
Under the bed tax, Virginia would charge hospitals and nursing homes a percentage of their revenue based on the number of beds at a facility, according to a WAMU 88.5 report. The federal government would match that amount through Medicaid, and the money would go back to hospitals to help cover the costs of caring for the state's 400,000 under or uninsured.
As Gov. McAuliffe prepares a two-year budget plan that he will present to lawmakers Dec. 17, lawmakers suspect the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association is shifting its position on the bed tax after years of opposition.
"I'm sure that the hospitals are involved in whatever discussions are taking place, and I seriously doubt that the governor is going to propose something that the hospitals don't agree to," said Sen. George Barker (D), according to the report. "For every Medicaid patient they take care of, the hospitals lose about a third of what it costs them to care for the patient."