Health Care Advocates Come Together to Launch $2 Million Ad Campaign Urging Rep. Kiggans to Protect Veterans’ Benefits and Medicaid
Virginia Beach, VA – Yesterday, Affordable Virginia held a launch event for the first ad of their $2 million campaign. The event highlighted individuals whose benefits are under threat due to Rep. Jen Kiggans' recent votes. Together with Common Defense, Freedom Virginia, advocates featured in the campaig and constituents came together to call on Rep. Kiggans to support our veterans and stop cutting essential health care programs to give billionaires another tax break.
The new ad features Ken Sutton, a Navy Veteran, who retired in Virginia Beach after 21 years of service. Today, he works with FEMA and volunteers with other veterans to help them access their benefits. In the ad, Ken calls out Rep. Jen Kiggans for voting to slash essential programs that many veterans rely on.
“In the past year, Rep. Kiggans has spent a lot of her time in Washington voting to slash services so many of our veterans rely on. The country so many of us fought for is hardly recognizable compared to a year ago,” said Ken Sutton, Navy veteran. “We served with duty and distinction, and our brothers and sisters are returning to civilian life without the help once afforded to their predecessors. We just saw 30,000 jobs eliminated from the VA. Our veterans deserve better. We are calling on Rep. Kiggans to do better by us and to stop making cuts to benefits veterans rely on. We all deserve health care.”
“We are living in a care economy crisis. I had to quit my job to become a full-time caretaker to my son and my elderly parents. It should not be this way,” said Bernita Richardson, Virginia Beach resident. “Without Medicaid, my son would not be able to see the specialists he requires, and we would not be able to afford his leg braces. That a Nurse Practitioner would support cutting Medicaid is unconscionable. Rep. Kiggans has voted to cut so many of our families’ healthcare. I am calling on her today to stop these cuts and make health care accessible for the over 125,000 constituents who rely on it.”
Virginia is home to one of the highest percentages of veterans in the country, yet over the past year, Rep. Kiggans has repeatedly supported policies that undermine the health of those families. She voted to slash health care for 260,000 Medicaid recipients across Virginia, including 47,000 veterans who rely on Medicaid for coverage. She also voted against restoring critical health care tax credits, handing 326,000 Virginians steep premium hikes. In addition, she has openly praised the current administration for its work in slashing tens of thousands of jobs at the Veterans Affairs Department.
[Photo Credit: Donte Lassiter]
