Today I was at the Finance Committee hearing on the upcoming Virginia budget. So many people stood up and courageously defended the Medicaid Waivers that are currently on the chopping block. I thought about giving similar personal testimony but as the hearing went on I began to imagine the image of peasants coming to court and begging on the mercy of their King (the fact that delegates were raised above those giving testimony and occasionally cutting them off didn’t help). I think too many Virginians think of public health as a matter of generosity towards those in need, or even a matter of pity. Public health is also an insurance policy. Anyone’s child or grandchild can be born with a mental illness or disability. Psychological trauma is a matter of chance, not socioeconomic status. No one is immune, everyone is vulnerable. That shared vulnerability brings us together. Through our public health system (including Medicaid waivers) Virginians are able to protect each other from the vagaries of fate and the vicissitudes of a sometimes unkind world.
-Curt White
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