By Steven Allen Adams, The Journal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State and national supporters of lowering the costs of expensive prescription drugs and expanding health insurance are urging West Virginians to get on the bus.
Protect Our Care, a health care advocacy organization, brought its nationwide bus tour to the State Capitol Building in Charleston on Monday. Charleston was the last of two stops in West Virginia for the bus tour, and one of 36 events in 19 states. The group stopped in Morgantown last week.
The group is traveling around the country to promote health care expansion through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Congress passed in March. Protect Our Care is also promoting efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable, such as H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act.
The American Rescue Plan provided short-term fiscal incentives for states that have not yet agreed to expand their Medicaid programs through the Affordable Care Act to do so. West Virginia is one of 39 states that already offers expanded Medicaid coverage, adopting it in 2014. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 20,000 West Virginia have signed up for health insurance in the federal marketplace in 2021…