By Bob Stuart
Published: February 14, 2009
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Brian Moran made a Waynesboro stop Friday to unveil a health-care plan that would insure every Virginia child and assist small businesses and seniors with coverage.
Moran’s “Healthy Virginia: Cover Every Kid” plan would raise the eligibility of families for the federal state children’s health insurance program from 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, eliminate the four-month waiting period for children who lose private insurance and qualify for the program and offer automatic enrollment at birth for all children from qualifying families.
Moran said this initiative would cut the number of uninsured Virginia children, currently estimated at more than 200,000, putting the state 32nd among the 50 states.
The candidate said the state could appropriate money to match federal funds for the insurance program.
“No parent should go to bed without access to health care,” said Moran. “It’s a moral obligation and an economic necessity. It’s a smart investment for the future.”
In addition to the health care for children, Moran’s plan calls for new financial incentives for affordable long-term care for seniors and eliminating waiting lists for home-delivered meals.
The plan also would create small business insurance pools to allow owners to insure their employees and allow young people to stay on the family insurance plan until age 26.
“In a struggling economy, creating jobs is extremely important, but health care is also important,” Moran said.
One in every seven Virginians lacks health care, Moran said.
A former Northern Virginia delegate and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Moran is locked in a tough three-way fight for the party’s gubernatorial nomination with Bath Sen. Creigh Deeds and national Democratic insider Terry McAuliffe. The race will culminate with a June 9 statewide primary.
Deeds’ press secretary, Brooke Borkenhagen, said his campaign will roll out a health care plan in the next few weeks after he finishes this session of the General Assembly.
She said Deeds “continues to fight to make health care more accessible and affordable for all Virginians.”
Borkenhagen said Deeds “has crafted innovative legislation to ensure Virginians have the right to choose which doctor they visit and the ability to purchase prescription medicines at a reasonable cost.”
Elisabeth Smith, McAuliffe’s press secretary, said he is conducting economic roundtables across the commonwealth and will unveil policy initiatives after finishing the roundtables.
Moran made noise at last weekend’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Richmond, where he questioned whether the Democratic Party would be one of the people or big money.
In an obvious swipe at McAuliffe, Moran said he was a “fighter not a fundraiser.”
On Friday, Moran reinforced his ties to the last two Virginia governors, Timothy M. Kaine and Mark Warner.
“It’s one thing to talk about governing like Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. I was there in the trenches fighting with them,” he said of his legislative experience.
