HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) – On Saturday, March 29, 2025, Protect Our Care Virginia hosted a panel at Hotel Madison focusing on how local leaders and advocates can protect health equity in response to threats to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.

The panel happened to occur the same week of the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. According to the panel, 2 million Virginians are on Medicaid. About 630,000 are at risk of losing Medicaid if cut.

Those that participated in the panel were: Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed; Executive Director of Birth in Color, Kenda Sutton-EL; Harrisonburg Professor Tim Jost; Vice-Chair of Charlottesville Human Rights Commission, Jason Melendez; POTS Advocate, Mel Pruett; and Director of Protect Our Care Virginia, Katie Baker.

Katie Baker said during her opening statement that cuts to healthcare will affect marginalized communities that include people of color, women, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community.

“I just want to name those groups and recognize that any cut to healthcare is going to have a disproportionate impact on them,” said Baker.

 Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed said healthcare shouldn’t be a political attack. 

“What we say in Harrisonburg is that we’re a city for all,” said Mayor Reed. “Healthcare needs to be access for all.”

 The panel discussed how to protect healthcare in Virginia leading up to the gubernatorial election this November. 

Kenda Sutton-EL said about 65,000 births in Virginia are on Medicaid. She expressed that she has not received answers from officials about how those who are Medicaid Expansion to switch to regular Medicaid if there are cuts.

“When you look at all the bills that were vetoed, even paid family leave was vetoed,” said Sutton-EL. “You are going to do a whole abortion ban and you have all these different things, but you don’t want to protect families. So how does this all make sense? If you don’t want to support Medicaid but you want people to have babies at the same time. But you don’t want to help cover it.”

“They don’t want the phone calls, they don’t want the protests, they don’t want the walkouts. They don’t want to be called out,” said Mayor Reed. “But that’s how you make the good trouble. That’s how you do it. You have to be the pain, because so much is on the line.”

Jason Melendez said that contacting members of Congress, or any local or state official, would be helpful. He encouraged officials to visit nursing homes where a number of residents are on Medicaid.

“Come visit a rural health clinic in the Shenandoah Valley,” said Melendez. “Come do all these different things that show and really highlight how close to home it all is.”

Mel Pruett said it is also important to advocate.

“I’ll never forget one of the scariest moments of my life was back in 2016 when Donald Trump was talking about taking away healthcare access if people did not look sick,” said Pruett. “And as somebody that does not look sick, that was quite terrifying. So, it’s really important that you go out there, you use your voice and constantly sharing your story.”