Just this month, the state agency that administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) announced the implementation of new restrictions that are expected to take food assistance away from thousands of West Virginians — including older adults between 55 and 64, veterans, parents of teenagers and former foster youth.
More than 60,000 West Virginians received notices that their health insurance premiums will be skyrocketing on Jan. 1, 2026, given ongoing uncertainty around whether Congress will extend tax subsidies that make ACA Marketplace plans affordable for people who do not receive health coverage through their jobs. And the only hospital in Greenbrier County just announced it will no longer provide labor and delivery services.
What do these concerning developments have in common? They are all part of the fallout from the passage of Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted earlier this summer, which all four of West Virginia’s members of Congress voted for.
That legislation contained the largest cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in the nation’s history, which will result in tens of thousands fewer West Virginians having access to these programs. It includes the new restrictions that will take food assistance away from parents and veterans in the coming months. For the households impacted, health care and groceries will become even more difficult to afford, as they already grapple with rising costs and a slowing economy.
But that’s not all. The bill also slashed Medicaid and SNAP by shifting federal program costs onto state budgets, and lawmakers will now have to come up with tens of millions of state dollars in upcoming years to plug holes in Medicaid and SNAP.
Other components of the legislation impact reimbursements and funding streams for health care providers, which is why some hospitals and clinics across the country are trimming services and even consolidating or closing their doors in anticipation of lower reimbursements and a higher volume of uncompensated care when more patients are uninsured.
While officials at the Greenbrier Valley Medical Center didn’t explicitly blame the federal legislation, they noted the reorganization would give them access to a higher level of reimbursement in order to make the hospital more sustainable. Our elected leaders should be working to expand health care access in rural parts of the state, not rubber-stamping policies that result in less accessible care. Now families in Greenbrier County and surrounding towns will have to travel farther for treatment and staff may lose their jobs or be forced to transfer farther away for work.
What the legislation shockingly did not contain, despite the prioritization of windfall tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy (80 percent of the tax benefits go to the top 10 percent richest households), was an extension of the tax credits that help hardworking West Virginians — mainly self-employed, small business owners and their employees, and retirees — afford health coverage on the marketplace. That explains the sticker shock many are experiencing now while shopping for health coverage for January.
These are all the very real results of the Big Beautiful Bill, despite assertions from the legislation’s supporters that the impacts are delayed or that band-aid provisions like the Rural Health Transformation Program will dampen the harms.
While some of the effects are already here, there is much more pain to come in the form of deep cuts to Medicaid both via eligibility restrictions and more federal cost shifts onto states, higher costs for West Virginians with student loan debt, and higher energy prices due to the repeal of affordable, clean energy programs.
These changes don’t only hurt the West Virginians who directly utilize these programs, but also the rest of us when our community hospitals reduce services, job losses in the health care and energy industries weaken our economy, and more of our community members experience hunger and suffering.
It’s not too late for West Virginia’s members of Congress to say enough is enough and address the affordability and economic crises created as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill. They can still roll back these harmful changes — but they must acknowledge that the harm is here. For many of us, it’s already undeniable.
