By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide
At a time when federal cuts are reducing SNAP benefits and free school lunch programs nationwide, Virginia has created a partnership that will help people facing Medicaid cuts that are set to begin Jan. 1.
The new $150 million Virginia Premium Savings Program is designed to help residents afford health insurance through the state marketplace. About 200,000 Virginians will benefit. It will use $150 million in state funding to help eligible Virginians lower their monthly health insurance premiums through the state marketplace. State leaders said some eligible residents could save as much as 70 percent on their premiums although they say newer estimates show more than 50,000 people could qualify for a $0 premium.
Open enrollment for Virginia’s health insurance marketplace begins Nov. 1. Virginia’s Marketplace open enrollment period runs through Jan. 29, 2027.
“Last year, the President and his allies in Congress made the decision to let those credits expire — and people felt it.” Gov. Abigail Spanberger said, while announcing the new Virginia Premium Saving Program at Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Norfolk on Oct. 21. “Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace lost nearly 100,000 enrollees in 2026, and the skyrocketing cost of monthly premiums was the biggest driver.”
Gaylene Kanoyton, a ranking member of the Democratic Party of Virginia and the NAACP, is helping state leaders organize healthcare reductions. Kanoyton recently told reporters, “It warms my heart because of the people that need to have it.”
Spanberger’s administration has formed partnerships that should mitigate and comply with H.R. 1, a federal reconciliation bill Congress passed last summer that includes current and forthcoming changes to Medicaid, hospital funding, and other social services, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Medicaid changes are expected to impact about 300,000 Virginians, at a time when about 5.8 million people — roughly 13.5 percent — have lost SNAP benefits since April 2025. The number of children receiving SNAP has dropped by about 2 million since July 2025, while the number of children who are not receiving free lunches stands at about 436,000 students in Virginia, according to news reports.
President Joe Biden requested $15 billion over the next 10 years in his 2024 budget to fund expanded access to the Community Eligibility Program. But the Trump administration slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that helped schools buy food from local farms through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Agriculture department’s $660 million Local Food For Schools program, which was started under President Joe Biden in 2021, was canceled in 2025, according to the School Nutrition Association.
All of these changes in Medicaid and free food programs come at a time when the demand for affordable healthcare and food assistance is unprecedented.
In Virginia, 1.3 million students participate in the National School Lunch Program and 45.59 percent are eligible for free or reduced price lunches. Research from the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research indicates that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic Virginia’s food insecurity rose from 12.5 percent to 22.5 percent (or more than one in five people) during the April-May 2020 timeframe.
Food insecurity continues nationwide and in Virginia because COVID-19 negatively impacted school schedules, school budgets, employment, the economy, and food insecurity.
Recently, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin Figueroa pointed to Gov. Spanberger’s August 2026 executive order, which ordered Virginia agencies to step up efforts to prevent eligible residents from losing Medicaid and food assistance before sweeping federal changes take effect in 2027.
“Others may still be eligible but lose coverage because a form was missed, a notice was misunderstood, or the process became too difficult to navigate,” Figueroa recently told reporters. “That distinction matters,” he said. “A paperwork failure should not become a healthcare crisis.”
This means some Virginians may lose Medicaid benefits at a time when nearly 60 percent of all youth cannot access no-cost meals in Virginia schools. Most schools won’t deny a student a meal even if they can’t pay, but will track their debt and try to collect from families throughout the school year.
When the big ball drops on New Year’s Day in Times Square, fewer low-income adults will have affordable health care and fewer low-income students will be able to obtain free breakfast and lunch at school.
Meanwhile a new $5 to $6 million heliport has been built at the White House, a $600 million ballroom is being proposed, plus a 250-foot-tall “Great Triumphal Arch” is expected to cost $100 million.
