What does Executive Order 20 mean for Virginians who rely on SNAP, Medicaid?

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - A new executive order from Gov. Abigail Spanberger, signed at the end of August, aims to protect Virginians from the impact of major federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP imposed by H.R. 1, President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

According to a release from the governor’s office, more than 1.8 million Virginians rely on Medicaid, while nearly 800,000 receive SNAP benefits.

The order directs the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to protect health care coverage and food assistance for as many Virginians as possible.

WHSV spoke with Marvin Figueroa, secretary of health and human resources, about what these changes could mean for families in the Shenandoah Valley.

“The bill removes 1.6 or 2.8 billion dollars from federal revenue that previously came into the state. It also introduces new programmatic changes to Medicaid, which means that people will have to do more things to be able to keep their Medicaid,” Figueroa said. “And so the executive order is designed to simplify those things that they’re supposed to be doing, improve the communication between the state and the individuals, and also makes additional resources available to be able to keep that coverage,” he said.

He said there are changes that are expected as a result of the federal cuts under H.R.1; One of those things is a concept called work requirements.

“... They now have to prove that they’re working, which means additional paperwork that they have to submit to be able to keep their coverage. It also requires certain individuals to now prove that they’re eligible rather than once a year, twice a year. So think about it as having to prove more often that they still qualify for the services that they previously received,” Figueroa said.

He said this also changes the way they finance these programs. For SNAP, the federal government used to pay 50% of administrative costs. Now, it is going to pay 25%, meaning that Virginia has to pay 75%, introducing new costs to the state.

Figueroa said they’re concerned about working people because the new additional requirements fall hardest on people with the least amount of time.

“Think about folks who have to demonstrate that they’re eligible again; they have to demonstrate that they’re working. If you are in a family like mine with a single mother, my mom didn’t have that much time because she had to go from one job to the other to make sure that our family had the resources that it needed ... We’re concerned about the unhoused, we’re concerned about people that don’t have the time to do these additional things,” he said.

He said these federal cuts could lead to more people becoming uninsured or having difficulty accessing health care as well.

“We’re seeing it happening in both of the systems that we either oversee or have mistaken. On the Medicaid side, you’re going to likely see folks that, because of these additional requirements, might lose their coverage, even though they thought they had it,” he said. “We’re seeing about 70,000 people have already dropped off from the private insurance part of it, and then on SNAP or food stamps or food assistance, we’re seeing about 100,000 Virginians have lost their coverage because these additional steps they have to take.”

Figueroa said they’re very concerned about the impact that the “One Big Beautiful Bill” will have on the ability to cover people, especially in rural areas. However, he added his office is doing everything it can to help prevent gaps in coverage.

“We’re working with our partners to make sure that people understand that the rules are changing, have an understanding of what those changes are, and be able to comply with those changes,” he said. “And so that is a big part of what we’re working on is making sure that communication is clear, and then from our end, that we’re making things as simple as possible.”

Figueroa said although they can’t prevent all the things the federal government is doing, and they’re hoping families won’t have to feel the impacts of this. However, it’s going to take a lot of work with what they’re doing behind the scenes.