{"id":643,"date":"2026-05-20T15:20:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:23:11","slug":"john-mcguire-vs-the-5th-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/john-mcguire-vs-the-5th-district\/","title":{"rendered":"John McGuire vs. The 5th District"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">How Charlottesville&#8217;s Congressman&#8217;s vote for HR1 could hurt his own constituents<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2024112_ELEX_TRUMP_SA_4621-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/category\/feature\/\">FEATURE<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/category\/news\/\">NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/author\/nathanalderman\/\">Nathan Alderman<\/a>&nbsp;| May 20, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/c-ville.com\/john-mcguire-vs-the-5th-district\/\"><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https:\/\/c-ville.com\/john-mcguire-vs-the-5th-district\/\"><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:info@example.com?&amp;subject=&amp;cc=&amp;bcc=&amp;body=https:\/\/c-ville.com\/john-mcguire-vs-the-5th-district\/%0A\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John McGuire lay there, unable to get up, watching his arm move without him, and slow, and stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2006, the former Navy SEAL was a self-employed fitness coach. Then, while jumping on a trampoline, he fell.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to McGuire, his C4 vertebra punctured his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the neck down. At the hospital, he says, doctors said he was unlikely to live through the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt probably took the ambulance five minutes to get to me, but it seemed like maybe longer,\u201d McGuire says, \u201cbecause I just thought about all the people in my life. I don\u2019t know why, but it just felt like I\u2019d let them down. It\u2019s a real sickening feeling.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGuire, now the representative for Virginia\u2019s 5th District, isn\u2019t shy about this story. He\u2019ll talk about his determination to get better and, aside from lingering weakness on his right side, his full recovery. He\u2019ll talk about how God gave him the second chance he used to enter politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But no matter how many times you ask, he won\u2019t talk about how much that hospital stay cost, or how he paid for it. Every time C-VILLE asked McGuire about times in his life when health care bills might have presented a burden, he pivoted to a different topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In May 2025, McGuire voted yes on HR1, variously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill or the Working Families Tax Cut Act. The bill partially offsets $3.9 trillion in long-term tax cuts with hundreds of billions of dollars in funding cuts and regulatory hurdles designed to reduce Americans\u2019 access to social safety net programs. With tax breaks exceeding its spending reductions, HR1 will add $2.7 trillion to the national deficit by 2034, according to Congressional Budget Office projections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGuire says HR1\u2019s cuts help to sustain a system spiraling into uncontrollable costs, by peeling away recipients who don\u2019t truly need the help. He says the bill will supercharge the American economy and open up opportunities to improve on existing programs with new ways for Americans to secure cheaper care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experts, social services workers, and people affected by the changes McGuire champions say he\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t actually believe that is what HR1 does,\u201d says Melanie Anne Egorin, an expert in health policy at the University of Virginia\u2019s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. \u201cI believe HR1 puts our most vulnerable populations at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the Virginia Supreme Court struck down state Democrats\u2019 redistricting plans, McGuire once again became the frontrunner in this fall\u2019s race for his Congressional seat. His vote for HR1 will shape the futures of many of the people and institutions he represents in the 5th District. The bill carries far-reaching ramifications for hospitals, SNAP food aid, individual health care plans purchased through ACA exchanges, and more. Over the next few weeks, C-VILLE will explore these impacts in a series of articles on c-ville.com.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the most consequential cuts McGuire and his fellow Republicans have passed concern access to health care for some of the poorest Virginians through Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cutting new holes in an old net<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need a health care system that preserves our citizens\u2019 dignity and independence,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cOf course we need a safety net. But more than that, we need a system that cares for the whole person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That system, McGuire says, includes measures that require Medicaid recipients to prove that they\u2019re working. \u201cWork provides stability and better health outcomes and opens the door to millions of Americans to climb out of poverty,\u201d McGuire says. \u201cOn the other hand, not working when you are able to leads to a spiral of inaction, government dependence, and feelings of helplessness that become tougher to climb out of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sebastian Tello Trillo, a Medicaid policy expert and associate professor at UVA\u2019s Batten School, says that work requirements for welfare programs like Medicaid have historically tended to cut participation in those programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s really hard for a politician to say, \u2018We want to reduce enrollment,\u2019 says Tello Trillo. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to sell the idea of something like work requirements.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rather than spurring people to get jobs, Tello Trillo says most of the available evidence indicates that work requirements drive participants off Medicaid, buried under extra paperwork. \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re sick, and then you can\u2019t work, and so then you can\u2019t get health insurance because you\u2019re sick,\u201d he says. \u201cThat part doesn\u2019t even make a lot of intuitive sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill\u2019s Medicaid changes will leave 7.8 million more people uninsured nationwide by 2034. In the 5th District, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 102,000 people\u201460 percent of the district\u2019s current enrollees\u2014could lose their coverage in the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20250828-melanie-egorin-01645-1024x682.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176692\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Melanie Anne Egorin. Photo: University of Virginia\u2019s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A red-tape labyrinth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The expected losses owe largely to HR1\u2019s work requirements for people in what\u2019s known as Medicaid expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traditionally, Medicaid has covered children, the elderly, the severely disabled, and the deeply destitute. The 2009 Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid, letting states cover other adults ages 19-64 who make less than 138 percent of the federal poverty line. In Virginia in 2026, that\u2019s $22,025 a year for a single person, or $45,540 for a family of four.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In VA-5, more than one out of every five people receives some form of Medicaid. Around one in every 20 residents is a childless adult on Medicaid expansion. That latter figure works out to more than 39,000 people, enough to fill John Paul Jones Arena more than twice over. Another 11,402 people, comprising 1.5 percent of the district, are parents or caregivers covered by expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With some exceptions\u2014including people caring for the severely disabled, and parents of children age 13 or younger\u2014HR1 demands adults on Medicaid expansion spend 80 hours a month working, studying, or volunteering. Alternately, they can earn an average of $580 per month, equal to 80 hours of federal-minimum-wage work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To make sure applicants comply, HR1 increases how often they must reapply for health care coverage, from once annually to every six months. That doubles the paperwork burden for patients and state social services agencies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s where people are going to lose health insurance,\u201d says Egorin. \u201cIt\u2019s actually not because they aren\u2019t working. It\u2019s because they have to do the bureaucracy to show they\u2019re working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere\u2019s the form,\u201d says Gregg Winston, a former hospital administrator who now heads Charlottesville-area nonprofit Move2HealthEquity. He hands over a 16-page booklet packed with blank lines and empty boxes. \u201cAnd the renewal is essentially redoing this whole thing all over. Yes, it\u2019s very difficult to read. So how in God\u2019s name do you need [16] pages of information in order to certify somebody again?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In some cases, Medicaid can renew people automatically by cross-checking their data from other government agencies. But Winston says not enough people understand or trust the government to check the box on the application form that permits administrators to do this. His group is training community volunteers to become navigators, helping Medicaid applicants successfully clear HR1\u2019s additional hurdles to receive care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even people who do everything right can still lose coverage. For example, Medicaid isn\u2019t allowed to check for forwarding addresses. That means some recipients who\u2019ve moved since their last enrollment miss crucial mailed notices warning them that they need to reapply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese are the gigantic holes that people fall into,\u201d Winston says. \u201cThey\u2019re still eligible. They still need coverage. But because I didn\u2019t tell you my address, and the law says I can\u2019t forward the information, I can\u2019t go and try to figure out where you are. You get put into the 90-day termination bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tello-trillo-_0.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176693\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Tello Trillo. Photo: University of Virginia\u2019s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A life on the edge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In September 2025, E.K., 38, had just passed their first anniversary as a senior investing editor for a well-known financial site, making slightly more than $100,000 a year. \u201cI was so, so proud I had cracked six figures,\u201d they say. \u201cI could cry just thinking about that.\u201d (Full disclosure: E.K. is a former colleague of this reporter at a previous employer. They agreed to speak to C-VILLE on condition of anonymity to protect their privacy and their chances of future employment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then Google changed its search algorithm, decimating the site\u2019s traffic. A new CEO laid off around one-fourth of the company. By September 17, E.K. was unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When they applied for an ACA exchange plan in December, E.K.\u2019s lack of income led Virginia to enroll them in Medicaid instead. By the time they got coverage, \u201cI was already at nearly 100 unsuccessful job applications. I\u2019m over 140 now, and the number would be higher if I wasn\u2019t more busy with the part-time restaurant jobs I\u2019ve been juggling.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They hadn\u2019t heard about the impending work requirements until interviewed for this article. \u201cIf that was what I was walking into when I signed up in December, I would have been at throwing-up levels of anxiety,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under HR1, applicants must apply almost immediately upon losing a job; they can\u2019t get coverage unless they show enough income the month before applying. E.K. likely wouldn\u2019t have qualified. Their former employer paid for their health care through last November, and they didn\u2019t need other care until December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like millions of Americans, E.K. has chronic conditions managed by medication, including \u201cdebilitating\u201d narcolepsy they developed in 2022. \u201cIf I don\u2019t take my medications, I can basically go fuck myself,\u201d they say. Their narcolepsy medicine costs $1,000 a month without insurance. \u201cWithout it I am completely incapacitated \u2026 I cannot safely drive a car or use the stove if I run out of medication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HR1\u2019s work requirements exclude people receiving Social Security Disability benefits. But E.K. says getting approved for that status is \u201cnotoriously extremely difficult.\u201d Applicants must first demonstrate that their disability keeps them from working for an entire year. Even then, it must appear on the program\u2019s official list of ailments\u2014which doesn\u2019t include narcolepsy. Otherwise, Social Security decides case-by-case whether someone\u2019s sick enough to equal one of its listed conditions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to prove to some random guy behind a desk somewhere that my condition cripples me without the right medication,\u201d E.K. says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until March, when E.K. managed to start cobbling together work, they estimated they spent 14 to 28 hours a week applying for jobs. They\u2019re trying to secure shifts waiting tables, a job they haven\u2019t worked in 15 years, and they\u2019re doing part-time freelance editing work. That should help E.K. meet the hours-worked and income requirements\u2014but only if their jobs don\u2019t fall through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC01698-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176694\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gregg Winston. Photo: Tristan Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Collapsing, or not?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo matter how you slice it, our Medicaid program was collapsing prior to [HR1],\u201d McGuire says. \u201cThe reforms we enacted were necessary to ensure the program continues to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Expansion represented about one-third of Virginia\u2019s total Medicaid spending in 2023. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, each expansion patient cost the state $8,861 that year. That\u2019s more than the national average for expansion patients, but significantly less than Virginia\u2019s overall average cost of $9,626, and far less than the 10s of thousands of dollars Virginia spent per person to treat disabled and elderly recipients.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s all this money that we\u2019re spending on things like Medicaid, but we are also spending money on a bunch of other things, and we do have money for all those things,\u201d says Tello Trillo. He acknowledges that the program\u2019s overall costs have been rising, and that how to curb those increases, or keep paying for them, are fair questions. But whether we can afford Medicaid, he says, comes down to our priorities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Policy Impacts Library measures the fiscal benefits of government policies against their costs. On average, its research estimates that Medicaid expansion returns about 70 cents for every dollar spent. But that represents a range of outcomes. Across all patients, expansion yielded benefits between 60 cents and $1.40 per dollar spent. For families with at least one preexisting condition, the average jumped to 99 cents per dollar spent, with benefits-per-buck between 75 cents and $5.31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tello Trillo says that when economists like him consider programs like Medicaid, they ask: Do the long-run benefits exceed the costs? \u201cThere\u2019s actually a lot of research that shows that Medicaid provides long-term benefits that offset the cost of the program.\u201d In addition to preventing medical debt and bankruptcy, he says, Medicaid means \u201cpeople die less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the ACA passed, some Republican-led states refused to expand Medicaid. A 2019 study from the University of Michigan compared death rates between expansion and non-expansion states. Just for low-income people aged 55 to 64, the study found that universal expansion would have saved 15,600 lives across all non-expansion states by 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen people die less, we think that\u2019s a huge bang for your buck in terms of paying whatever we pay for the program,\u201d Tello Trillo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c-ville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC01610-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176695\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Willa Barnhardt. Photo: Tristan Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Scapegoats for higher costs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGuire appears to be using different calculations. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on strengthening Medicaid by ensuring that resources flow to our most vulnerable citizens as originally intended,\u201d he says, \u201cnot illegal aliens or able-bodied adults who could work and aren\u2019t contributing their fair share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A closer look at McGuire\u2019s criticism of both those groups casts doubt on his accuracy. (C-VILLE invited McGuire and his staff to respond to apparent factual errors or disputed data in his statements, but they declined.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Immigrants (who aren\u2019t eligible)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Undocumented immigrants\u2014and most legal immigrants\u2014are largely barred from receiving Medicaid. According to the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, only \u201cqualified\u201d immigrants, a complex status that includes legal permanent residents, refugees, and asylees, among others, can receive regular Medicaid. Most of that coverage kicks in only after a five-year waiting period.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HR1 strips multiple groups from this pool of legal immigrants, including asylum seekers and most refugees. They also lose access to SNAP, Medicare, and ACA premium tax credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By law, hospitals can\u2019t turn people away from the ER. Medicaid reimburses hospitals for undocumented immigrants\u2019 care only when they seek emergency treatment, and only if they meet the same income and other requirements as U.S. citizens.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between 2017 and 2023, the Congressional Budget Office found that Medicaid spent around $3.85 billion annually on emergency care for noncitizens. That sounds like a lot, but it represented less than 1 percent of overall Medicaid spending each year, including just 0.4 percent in 2023. The U.S. government spent $6.1 trillion in 2023, meaning the $3.8 billion it paid covering Medicaid for noncitizens amounted to around six one-hundredths of a penny per dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HR1 rolls back the amount Medicaid will reimburse states\u2019 emergency care costs to 50 percent. Previously, it repaid some states as much as 90 percent. Those states will have to find ways to cover bigger portions of that bill themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seven states have also chosen to use state funds only, without federal dollars, to cover Medicaid for every eligible resident regardless of immigration status. Virginia isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Able-bodied adults<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnemployed adult Medicaid recipients who are able to work are spending an average of 44 hours a week watching TV or socializing,\u201d McGuire says, \u201cand spend less than an hour a day looking for work or caregiving.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That frequent Republican talking point comes from a 2025 study by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, which says that \u201cnon-disabled\u201d expansion recipients who aren\u2019t working or in school spend 6.1 hours a day on leisure activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critics say that study defined \u201cdisabled\u201d too narrowly, including only about 14 percent of Americans with disabilities. Many of the rest may be healthy enough to work some of the time, but still physically incapable of full-time work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost people that are already receiving these welfare programs are actually already working,\u201d Tello Trillo says, \u201cand if they\u2019re not working, it\u2019s most likely due to a particular reason, like a disability, sickness, a lot of challenges in their life that led them to not have consistent employment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Per a 2025 study by the progressive Urban Institute, only 2 percent of respondents simply chose not to work. That translates to roughly 300,000 people out of the 15 million in expansion nationwide. Sixty-nine percent of enrollees were working or attending school, though 23 percent would have missed at least one month of income requirements under HR1. Another 21 percent weren\u2019t working because they physically couldn\u2019t, were struggling to find a job, or had someone at home who needed their full-time care. Those national figures line up with local observations. \u201cSeventy percent of the Free Clinic patients work,\u201d says Willa Barnhardt, executive director of the Charlottesville Free Clinic. \u201cThe ones that don\u2019t work are trying to find work.\u201d The clinic mostly serves people without any health care, including Medicaid. In its most recent annual survey, patients listed 561 different employers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re still wearing maybe their uniform from \u2026 a paint crew, or from the grocery store, and they still have their hairnet from working there all day,\u201d Barnhardt says. \u201cThey need health care. And if it\u2019s not Medicaid, then it\u2019s going to end up being free clinics, or the emergency room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">E.K. says they\u2019ll go back to full-time employment in a heartbeat, if they can only find a job. \u201dI want to not worry about my savings draining away as I continue to bring in less money than what covers my rent payment, let alone groceries and other essentials. I do want a paycheck. I want to feel even a little bit more secure.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>When work requirements&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>don\u2019t work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two states previously tested work requirements for Medicaid. The results appear to have been a failure at best\u2014and disastrous at worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Georgia declined to expand Medicaid under the ACA, instead creating Pathways to Coverage in 2021. It offers Medicaid-like care for patients at or below the federal poverty line, with work requirements like HR1\u2019s. In 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp estimated that 345,000 Georgians would be eligible for the program. By February 2026, only 14,952 people had successfully signed up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 2025 review from the Government Accountability Office found that between 2021 and mid-2025, Pathways spent twice as much on administrative costs as it did actually providing care: $54.2 million versus $26.1 million.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arkansas\u2019 earlier experiment had grimmer outcomes. Between June 2018 and March 2019, the state tested work requirements for Medicaid recipients ages 30-49 living below the poverty line. Thanks partly to a poorly designed system, 18,164 people in Arkansas lost health care. Only 1,981 found any kind of new job. State data didn\u2019t record whether those jobs were full or part time, or how long they lasted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During Arkansas\u2019 experiment, Harvard researchers surveyed the people losing care. Getting kicked off Medicaid didn\u2019t spur people to find work; it cost them jobs. The percentage of people employed for at least 20 hours a week fell by 3.5 percentage points, from 42.4 percent to 38.9 percent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGuire acknowledges the failures of past work requirement programs, but says this time will be different. Requirements will be standardized across states, he says, preventing \u201cclunky or inconsistent rollouts.\u201d Enrollees get a three-month grace period to adapt to the new requirements. And states can delay implementing them up to December 31, 2028 (after the next presidential election), as long as they show they\u2019re working on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tello Trillo says there are ways the government could make Medicaid more effective and cost-efficient: Expand access to telehealth and other forms of preventative care, incentivize more providers to accept Medicaid patients, and remove red tape and its overhead costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis bill, unfortunately, doesn\u2019t do any of those things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Help, health, and history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tragedy haunts every branch of McGuire\u2019s family tree. Public records and newspaper accounts show that two of his mother\u2019s younger siblings died in accidents\u2014one drowning, one fatally injured in a car crash\u2014before their 19th birthdays. In 1989, McGuire\u2019s uncle, living with severe untreated mental illness and convinced he was hearing the voices of angels, murdered McGuire\u2019s maternal grandfather with a shotgun blast to the face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to public records, McGuire\u2019s mother, Bessie Louise Heath, was first married at 17, deserted and divorced with two children by 20, and remarried by 22, in August 1967. Her new husband, John McGuire, Jr., was 33.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McGuire says his parents struggled with substance abuse, leading him to shun drugs and alcohol. By his hazy recollections, after his father left in 1972 and his parents officially divorced in 1975, his mother left McGuire and his sister on a street corner when he was 5.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After years in the foster system, McGuire says he and his sister were rescued by his paternal grandparents. The congressman still speaks of his grandfather, John McGuire Sr., a Navy veteran of World War II, with reverent love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was a very strong man,\u201d McGuire recalls. \u201cWe would go to the beach and he would swim straight out and disappear and come back \u2026 I didn\u2019t have a watch when I was a kid, but it seemed like hours later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to state records, McGuire Sr.\u2014then a maintenance worker for Richmond Public Schools\u2014died of lung cancer in 1982 at age 62. McGuire was 14 years old. \u201cI remember I didn\u2019t want to go to school that day,\u201d McGuire says. \u201cI just felt like something was wrong. And sure enough, he passed away when I was at school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked about the burden, financial or otherwise, that death might have placed on his family, McGuire says, \u201cWhen you\u2019re young, you don\u2019t share financial burdens with a kid. But to be honest, I wasn\u2019t very aware of that. But was it a challenge? Certainly, it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then he changed the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Next week: Virginians face another price shock, as McGuire\u2019s HR1 vote drives up the cost of health care plans on ACA exchanges.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Charlottesville&#8217;s Congressman&#8217;s vote for HR1 could hurt his own constituents FEATURE\u00a0NEWS Nathan Alderman&nbsp;| May 20, 2026 &nbsp;&nbsp; John McGuire lay there, unable to get up, watching his arm move [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[59,21,35,31],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthcare-access","tag-community-health","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-medicaid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m2hequity.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}