Williamsburg, Va. – In case you missed it, Protect Our Care’s Care Force One arrived in Williamsburg on Oct. 12 as part of its national “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” bus tour. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin Figueroa, Delegate Jessica Anderson and Delegate Mark Downey joined advocates and storytellers at the event in calling out Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for taking a wrecking ball to our health care system.
Across the country, hard-working families are fed up with the growing health care crisis after Trump and Congressional Republicans slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and gutted Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. In addition to voting for the Big Ugly Law, Congressman Rob Wittman — whose district includes Williamsburg — voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act 60 times.
During the event, Virginians impacted by Republican cuts to health care called on lawmakers to enact commonsense health care solutions, including restoring tax credits to lower insurance premiums, reversing devastating Medicaid cuts, expanding Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for more drugs and extending those lower prices to all Americans with insurance, penalizing drug companies that raise prices faster than inflation, and protecting patients from high costs by extending the annual $2,000 out-of-pocket cap and the $35 insulin co-pay cap to people with private coverage.
“These cuts have not only increased the cost of health care for everyone, especially those who are on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, but they are putting lives in danger, making a maternal health crisis and an infant mortality crisis facing our commonwealth and our nation even worse,” said Congresswoman McClellan. “Why? So that Donald Trump and his Congressional Republican enablers could give more tax breaks to billionaires, and now a trillionaire, by passing the Big Ugly Law … It is time to fix the health care crisis now because the American people are sick of it.”
“Three rural health clinics in the Commonwealth have already announced they are closing as a direct result of the Republican policies and the health care crisis they created, and those 15 million newly uninsured still get sick and go to the hospital and they can’t pay. So who pays? Everybody else,” said Congressman Scott. “At a time when Americans are demanding relief from rising costs, Republicans have chosen to make health care even more expensive and harder to access just to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.”
“I’m sick of families being told to work harder when they’re working two jobs. I am sick of a mother choosing between her prescription and her rent. I’m sick of rural hospitals and clinics wondering whether they’ll see the next day and keep their doors open,” said Secretary Figueroa.
“The Big, Ugly Bill has been a disaster since the moment it passed last year. The SNAP benefits were the beginning, and the ACA cuts were immediate, and the fact is, we did it all to give massive tax giveaways to corporations and billionaires, while quite literally sacrificing our health care,” said Delegate Anderson.
“I believe health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege,” said Delegate Downey, who has been a pediatrician for 25 years.“My goal in the General Assembly is to make sure that every child in Virginia has health care and then move on from there, and I’m sick of the attacks on the people who need it the most.”
“For the past three years, my family has purchased health insurance on the Virginia Marketplace. After the cuts made to health care in the ACA in 2025, our insurance premiums jumped $300 a month. Unfortunately, that was unaffordable for us,” said Kathleen Winters, a small business owner from Newport News. “So we made the decision to switch to a higher deductible plan. We still pay $665 per month for a plan that has 20 and $50 co-pays and a $7,000 deductible. Once we hit that $7,000 deductible, we still have a 50% coinsurance for services like the emergency room and mental health care. In practice, this has meant delaying non-urgent diagnoses for my youngest child, declining an MRI for a herniated disc, and deciding which family members we need to prioritize because we haven’t met the deductible and will be paying out of pocket for those services.”
“Nine years ago I walked into the doctor’s office with a nagging cough and walked out with a stage four cancer diagnosis,” said Laura Packard, cancer survivor and health care advocate.“Luckily, I had good insurance that paid for the chemotherapy and radiation I needed to survive. But I’m sick of watching Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, like Rob Wittman, demolish our health care system. Lawmakers need to restore the tax credits that keep premiums affordable, reverse these devastating Medicaid cuts, and make sure people like me can actually afford to survive. Cancer doesn’t wait, and neither should Congress.”
“Families across this country are sick of it, and they’re making their voices heard loud and clear,” said Katie Baker, Protect Our Care Virginia State Director. “Care Force One is hitting the road to put every Republican who voted to gut our health care on notice. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress rammed through the largest health care cuts in history, slashing more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and ripping away tax credits to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. They knew exactly what that would do: close hospitals, cause premiums to skyrocket, and make families ration care they can’t afford to skip. What they didn’t count on was how furious people would get once they felt the consequences. We’re bringing this fight to nearly 40 communities over four weeks, and we’re not letting Republicans — and that includes Rob Wittman — off the hook. They decimated our health care system to pay for tax cuts for their donors, and this November, they’re going to answer for it.”
The Williamsburg stop of the “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” bus tour followed a morning stop with 32BJ SEIU airport service workers at Dulles Airport. The bus then rolled into Virginia Beach on Oct. 13 for its third and final stop in the commonwealth.
Event News Coverage
- WY Daily: Health care bus tour stops in Williamsburg to highlight federal cuts
Event Assets
- Photos of the event can be downloaded HERE.