By Chandelis Duster, Phil Karstetter, and David Preut
VCU InSight
Richmond, VA –Tough times are about to get a little tougher for state-funded services, as almost $4 billion in state spending has been cut out of the budget for the next two fiscal years.
Of that $4 billion, $800 million will be cut from healthcare funding resulting in less state spending on medicaid and academic hospitals like MCV.
“The key thing is that it’s a joint effort, where every dollar the state spends on this program is matched by federal health care dollars,” said Michael Cassidy, executive director of the independent, non-partisan, non-profit Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis.
This works the other way, too. Every dollar the state does not spend is essentially doubled since the federal government won’t be matching the funds.
Therefore, for the next two fiscal years virginia healthcare will cut funding by not $800 million but instead $1.6 billion.
