WBOY – Community members gathered Wednesday evening for the Randolph County Community Conversation on Health Impacts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” at the Phil Gainer Community Center in Elkins.
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The event, hosted by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, gave residents the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about how proposed federal funding changes could affect healthcare access in their communities. Also discussed were the cuts to SNAP benefits and how that would impact families and the elderly who rely on those funds for fresh foods.
“Some of the concerns are related to food assistance; everyone is very, very concerned about the current state of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Department of Agriculture’s decision not to provide benefits for the month of November. There are harsh new restrictions coming down with families with children when it comes to SNAP and the elderly, folks up to 64 years old,” Senior Policy Outreach Director at the WV Center on Budget and Policy Seth Distefano said. “Medicaid and the expansion of Medicaid is the biggest success story West Virginia has had over the last decade. And there is a lot of concern about what West Virginia and specifically this community here in Randolph County would look like when a billion dollars of federal healthcare funding just evaporates.”
