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Jennifer Carroll Foy Wants to be Virginia’s First Female Governor

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Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy has been working for change since childhood. Now in her run to become Virginia’s next Governor, she’s fighting for affordable healthcare, living wages, social equity, environmental issues, and more. 

Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy knew she wanted to play a part in social change since high school. Now this candidate for Virginia Governor and chief sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment is ramping up her campaign, despite the challenges this year has brought. Even in the middle of a pandemic, election season doesn’t wait for anything; and although the coronavirus has put a damper on just about everything in life, the run for electing the next Governor is on. 

As delegate for the state’s second district, which includes Prince William and Stafford County, Carroll Foy says she’s running for governor because Virginians can’t wait for change any longer — and describes what it’s like running her campaign during a global pandemic. 

“I keep hearing the same type of stories,” Carroll Foy explains. “A woman has to travel fourteen miles to take her daughter to the local McDonald’s so she can do her homework. They don’t have access to the internet. [Then] I went to Portsmouth, and I shook the hands of men and women who work 40 hours a week and bring home $14,000 a year. So while some people are doing well in Virginia, not everyone is having the same opportunity to reach the middle class and thrive.”

PHOTO: Virginia Democrats Swearing In, via Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy

Carroll Foy started her years in public service when she joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in high school. After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to allow women to attend Virginia Military Institute (VMI), she knew she had to attend. Carroll Foy became one of the first women of color to graduate from the state military school. She then pursued a Master’s degree, and later earned a law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL). She’s been serving her community ever since.

“I have seen the historic inequalities — in our educational system, our healthcare system, our environment, our economy — up close and personal,” Carroll Foy said. “I’ve experienced many of them myself. So as a working mom of two two-year-olds, working two jobs while paying a second mortgage every month [in childcare costs], and struggling with student loan debt, I can identify and understand the everyday challenges that Virginia families face. I live with them, too.”

Since 2017, Carroll Foy has committed her time to service in the Virginia House of Delegates. Along with sponsoring the Equal Rights Amendment, she has fought to expand Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians while helping with the unemployment process. She’s worked to ensure small businesses are tended to, and that kids still have access to school lunches during COVID-19. But unlike other seasons, this election season has proved to be a challenge, and no candidate is untouched by the coronavirus crisis.

PHOTO: Jennifer Carroll Foy

“My challenges I’ve faced thus far, and in this election, have been the same challenges that my companions are facing. In 2020 and 2021, it’s a fact that we’re running during a pandemic, something that none of us have seen in our lifetimes,” she said. “Then we have the civil unrest and racial reckoning happening right now, and [I’m] trying to lead in that area; pass policies that address police reform and criminal justice reform, while also dismantling a lot of systems that need to be up-ended and rooted in equity. One of the things that VMI taught me was to never get distracted about what’s going on. I’ve been able to do that, because I am not running against anyone in this race for Governor — I’m running for the people of Virginia.” 

In her time as a public defender for the state of Virginia, Carroll Foy has fought for and accomplished many acts of service. She recalls one of her proudest achievements during her time as a delegate, and describes the hard fight it took to accomplish. 

“One of my proudest moments [was] passing the Equal Rights Amendment. I remember fishing the idea to other legislators, that we need to make women’s equality the number one issue in Virginia, and I was told no,” Carroll Foy said. “That was a dead issue that no one was talking about. Luckily, there are advocates like Eileen Davis, who helped galvanize the VA Ratify ERA, [an organization] which houses advocates throughout the Commonwealth and the country to energize voters on this issue, such as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. That became one of the top issues on voters’ minds going into the voting booth in 2019.”

PHOTO: Jennifer Carroll Foy

After bringing to light issues of equality for women, Carroll Foy wants to bring internet access to rural Southwest Virginia and help families get out of the lower class. She’s completely focused on her goal, and says she has always been ready to fight for Virginians and their families.

“I am honored to be in a position to change the face of leadership in Virginia,” Carroll Foy said. “I am also focused on ensuring I bring diverse, high paying jobs to every corner of the Commonwealth.”

She plans to fully fund the education system to prepare Virginia’s children with a world-class education. She also plans to expand infrastructure — such as broadband internet access — to every corner of the state to “finally end the digital divide.” 

“As Governor, I will be able to help lead those changes,” Carroll Foy said, “and set the direction for who we are as Virginians and what we stand for.”

Top Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy

Health Care Providers Fear Cancellation of Telehealth Coverage After Pandemic Ceases

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The COVID-19 pandemic has made it possible for doctors to move patient checkups to the phone, a positive step for many doctors and patients. But as the pandemic winds down, will insurance stop covering telehealth?

Meg Fregoso, a nurse practitioner, used to see patients who previously had a lung transplant at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Now she uses telehealth to meet patients.

Fregoso is one of many health care providers offering more telehealth services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, providers are concerned that they will no longer be reimbursed for these services once coronavirus restrictions are lifted. 

The coverage of telehealth for physical therapy services was rare before COVID-19, according to Kara Gainer, director of regulatory affairs at the Alexandria-based American Physical Therapy Association. Now, Medicare and most insurance companies are covering more telehealth services due to the coronavirus, Gainer said. 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expanded Medicare coverage due to COVID-19, according to the organization’s website. However, the agency will reduce payments, on Jan. 1, 2021, to more than three dozen categories of health care providers, according to APTA.

Challenges still remain for physical therapists as many are uncertain about payment, according to a survey done by the APTA.

Gainer works with different groups, such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, to advocate for the continuation of coverage for health care providers. 

“Everyone would be supportive of receiving reimbursement for telehealth services at the same rate as receiving reimbursement for in-person services,” Gainer said.  

Reimbursement is the payment that health insurers send to health care providers for giving a medical service, according to an article by Verywell Health, a website that provides health information.

In the past, Inova considered using telehealth to treat post lung transplant patients, Fregoso said. However since most insurance providers didn’t reimburse this type of service, it wasn’t commonly used. Now, Fregoso and other providers are reimbursed for telehealth visits.

“With everything with COVID, it became kind of critical,” Fregoso said.

Telehealth uses technology like  messages, phone calls, and live video conference meetings to provide health care services, according to the American Telemedicine Association.

Jade Bender-Burnett, a physical therapist who serves patients with spinal cord and brain injuries at NeuroPT in Falls Church, used telehealth to serve patients before COVID-19 and has continued to use it. Bender-Burnett spoke about how COVID-19 made telehealth more accessible.

“One of our biggest barriers to providing virtual treatment sessions has always been reimbursement,” Bender-Burnett said. 

Some patients, like Kathy Lindsey, find telehealth appointments more beneficial than visiting the doctor in-person. Lindsey sees an endocrinologist in Fairfax County. She began using telehealth to see her endocrinologist because of COVID-19. 

Given the option she would like to continue using telehealth services because it is convenient and efficient, Lindsey said. 

Telehealth’s more prominent role in health care will make private insurance companies and Medicare likely continue to cover these services, according to Gainer. Congress will have to act to ensure continued coverage because the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services does not have the authority to make the coverage permanent, Gainer said. 

Legislation has been introduced that would make telehealth coverage permanent for therapy providers, according to Gainer. It is likely the discussion regarding telehealth and introduction of other bills will occur in Congress in the coming months, Gainer said.

“The landscape is forever changed,” Gainer said.

Written by Rebecca Elrod, Capital News Service. Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

After Election, Virginia Dodges Medicaid Work Requirements

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The requirement that Medicaid recipients work was a Republican condition of the program’s expansion. But with the new Democrat-controlled General Assembly soon to be seated, Governor Northam no longer plans to enforce it.

Virginia residents with Medicaid will not be required to work in order to keep their policies since Gov. Ralph Northam halted the work requirements he previously agreed to implement nearly two years ago as a bipartisan agreement. 

House Republicans said in a statement that the previous agreement was made in “good faith” and Northam gave his “personal assurance” to implement Medicaid expansion with a work requirement, where most Medicaid recipients would have to work a certain amount of hours each month to keep their policy. 

“Broken promises like this are the reason so many people hate politics,” Del Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said in the statement.

In 2019, Virginia expanded eligibility for health coverage to 400,000 people. So far, 342,000 Virginians have signed up for health insurance coverage through Medicaid expansion. Work requirements for Medicaid could lead to between 26,800 and 74,000 people losing their health insurance coverage, according to The Commonwealth Institute. 

The work requirements previously agreed on would apply to able-bodied Medicaid recipients who would need to work and pay premiums. For the first three months, enrollees would start with a work requirement of 20 hours per month. The workload would increase to 80 hours per month after a person was enrolled for 12 months, according to the amended budget. 

“In order to work, you have to be healthy, so work requirements for Medicaid expansion make no sense at all,” said Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress Virginia, in a press release. “We’re thrilled that Democrats are taking steps to halt the implementation of punitive work requirements to qualify for Medicaid Expansion, and we hope that it means even more people will be able to benefit from the program.”

Virginia’s Capitol building. (Photo by Patricia Cason, via VCU CNS)

Arkansas was the first state to implement a work reporting requirement for Medicaid. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that 18,164 people lost coverage within the first seven months of the program and approximately 23 percent of all people subject to work requirements lost coverage. There is no evidence that work reporting requirements led to any major increase in work participation or hours worked, the study found. The policy is no longer being enforced in Arkansas, due to a recent court decision. 

Ashleigh Crocker, communications director for Progress Virginia, thinks it doesn’t make sense to implement the plan.

“The vast majority of people who get insurance coverage through Medicaid are already working,” Crocker said. 

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, said that moving forward, Republicans have “little ability” to retain the previous agreement from a couple years ago. 

“This is an example of how elections have consequences,” Farnsworth said. “The new Democratic majorities taking office next month have little interest in the work requirement as a condition for Medicaid expansion, and seem very likely to abandon that provision in the next session.”

Written by Rodney Robinson, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash

Trump Tweets ‘Tremendous Progress Being Made!’ on HIV – as He Works to Roll Back HIV/AIDS Programs and Policies

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The president spoke of ending HIV in his State Of The Union address earlier this year, but from his gutting of HIV-related programs to his continued stigmatizing of the LGBTQ community, his record says something quite different.

One week after President Donald Trump promised to work to “eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years,” and “defeat AIDS in America,” in his State of the Union address last month, The New York Times ran a scathing report on the Trump administration’s efforts that are actually working against that goal, and actively harming those living with HIV/AIDS.

For Trump at the State of the Union, it was literally just a hypocritical applause line.

So it’s a bit ironic that Trump, who despises what he falsely calls “the failing New York Times,” Tuesday morning tweeted out a Times story: “HIV Is Cured In 2nd Patient, Doctors Report.”

The story begins, “Scientists have long tried to duplicate the procedure that led to the first long-term remission 12 years ago. With the so-called London patient, they seem to have succeeded.”

Trump, just as he did in his State of the Union address, offered only empty words.

“Such great news for so many. Tremendous progress being made!”

In mid February The New York Times reported: “Trump Pledged to End H.I.V. But His Policies Veer the Other Way,” offering a litany of examples detailing how the Trump administration has actually worked to reverse progress being made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“In November, the Trump administration proposed a rule change that would make it more difficult for Medicare beneficiaries to get the medicines that treat H.I.V. infection and prevent the virus from spreading,” the Times reported, adding, “the Trump administration proposed a new policy to cut costs for Medicare by reducing the number of drugs that must be made available to people with H.I.V.”

“Mr. Trump has repeatedly urged Congress to repeal the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, even though Medicaid is the largest source of coverage for people with H.I.V. And he has promoted the sale of short-term health plans that skirt the Affordable Care Act, even though such plans usually exclude people with H.I.V.”

“To end the spread of the virus, federal health officials say they must reduce the stigma attached to gay men and transgender people who are at high risk so they will seek testing and treatment. But for two years the administration has tried to roll back legal protections for people in those groups.”

The executive director of the American Academy of H.I.V. Medicine said the Trump administration’s moves last year “could be catastrophic” for Medicare patients living with HIV.

Back in June of 2017, six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) resigned, citing President Trump’s lack of interest or strategy to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Trump “simply does not care,” they wrote. Later that year, in December, without warning, Trump fired the remaining 16 members, “via a letter from FedEx.”

Overnight the White House website, HIV.gov, had been scrubbed of their names.

Trump has waited more than a year to reconstitute the White House AIDS Council. With new leaders the panel is slated to meet this month.

“In May 2017,” HIV Plus Magazine reminded last month, “the White House announced intended and deliberate funding cuts to HIV programs including PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the Ryan White Program, and the Global Fund. These funds administer critical resources in the fight against HIV both domestically and internationally, and cutting them would not only immediately hurt those living with HIV, but also increase new infection rates.”

It adds that as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence “caused the worst HIV outbreak in Indiana history in 2014 through his negligence of drug users and people living with HIV.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Opinion: Republican Politics Made Us Wait for Medicaid Expansion, What To Know

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Medicaid expansion finally came to Virginia this week.

A few reminders: Medicaid is the federal government’s health insurance program for the poor. It’s often confused with Medicare, which is the federal program for the elderly. Medicaid is also partially funded and administered by states, so state governments have a lot of say in who is covered. One of the main provisions of 2010’s Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare”, allowed states to apply for billions in additional federal funds to help cover more people under Medicaid. This is the “Medicaid expansion” that Virginia’s General Assembly included in the state budget that finally passed this week.

So, there was basically free money from the federal government to help the poor. Why did it take this long for Virginia to join the 30 other states who have opted in to this expansion? And why was it included in the budget only after a protracted budget battle that almost led to an unprecedented shutdown of state government?

The Republicans who blocked expansion for years offered pretty thin arguments, mostly suggesting that it would be financially careless to expect the federal government to keep its funding promises. Never mind that it’s a dumb argument to say, “Don’t give me money today because you might not give it to me tomorrow.” But also, as many Republicans admitted this year, many of the people who would be covered under the expansion are already being paid for by the state, so there actually would be significant cost savings to adopting expansion. It was always a good idea.

So why did it take almost a decade to adopt this reform? It’s not policy – just politics. Three different political battles shaped Republicans’ intransigence to expansion:

Virginia GOP vs. T-Mac

Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe really, really, REALLY wanted Medicaid expansion. McAuliffe also had a famously tense relationship with the state legislature. Mostly an outsider to the insular General Assembly, the Governor often had trouble brokering any deals and getting any of his priorities through the GA; he vetoed a record number of bills during his term in office.

So GA Republicans saw Medicaid expansion as a way to prevent T-Mac from claiming a political victory. But the General Assembly also had a model for their opposition to the Governor’s agenda, particularly on healthcare.

National GOP vs. Obama

Republicans in Congress decided even before President Obama took office what their political approach to his victory would be: oppose and obstruct. Everything. As Senator George Voinovich  noted, “If he was for it, we had to be against it.” This was a cynical strategy, but a largely successful one, particularly when it came to Obama’s signature legislation on healthcare. Opposition to Obamacare defined the GOP during the Obama years.

This opposition trickled down to the states. Virginia Senator John Watkins, who supported Medicaid expansion back in 2014, noted that his fellow Republicans who blocked it were taking a page from their brethren in Washington. “They are trying to exhibit their disdain for the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “They feel if enough people refuse to use it, somehow it’s going to go away, that it will fail.”

In 2018, both McAuliffe and Obama are out of office, so it would make sense that Medicaid expansion finally was put on the table. So then why did the expansion require an extended budget battle that went almost down to the wire?

Virginia GOP vs. Conservatives

Last fall’s election brought a “blue wave” to Virginia, with Democrats sweeping the state-wide races and almost taking back the House of Delegates. House Republicans took away one big lesson: adapt to the changing political mood in Virginia or lose even bigger next time. It helped that new House Speaker Kirk Cox brought some fresh air and a new political approach to the Republican caucus.

But over in the Senate, Cox’s counterpart Tommy Norment drew the exact opposite lesson: continue to signal your opposition to liberal healthcare plans, or you’ll get outflanked by your right. I think the RTD’s Jeff Shapiro has it right: Norment is worried that his colleagues will face opposition, and possibly even primary challenges, from conservatives who have been trained to see Obamacare and its ilk as evil incarnate. Plus, Norment has to worry about hanging on to his party leadership position.

Still, some of Norment’s individual colleagues, such as Jill Vogel and Ben Chafin, threw their lot in with the House and supported expansion. We’ll see next year if their view of their constituencies is better than Norment’s.

The bottom line in all this? Just like at the national level, party and ideology – they’re really both the same thing at this point – drive almost everything in Virginia politics. As much as we might like to “vote for the best candidate” or expect “reasonable people” in office to compromise, the “D” or “R” after your elected official’s name probably matters more than anything else about them. Credit – or blame – for this goes to Republicans, both in Washington and here in Richmond. Compromise is rare because they’ve not only played this game more effectively than the Democrats, but they’ve essentially set up the rules and laid out the board.

This week the General Assembly created the conditions for almost 400,000 Virginians to get healthier. It was a reasonable and bipartisan compromise that still required a sweeping electoral victory for Democrats last fall. If enough voters connect the dots, we should see similar results this year, and maybe even next. Tommy Norment may have a lot more to worry about.