Richmond, Va.

Obamacare win: Virginia’s Republicancontrolled legislature voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act last week. Roughly 400,000 low-income Virginians will gain access to the federal public health insurance program next year. The Affordable Care Act gave states the option to expand Medicaid starting in 2014, but GOP lawmakers in Virginia successfully blocked it for years. The Republican resistance began to crumble after Democrats made sweeping gains in last year’s state elections, with now–Gov. Ralph Northam campaigning heavily on health-care issues. To win Republican votes, Democrats in the statehouse agreed to require adults without disabilities to work or volunteer in order to receive benefits. Ultimately, enough Republicans voted for the expansion that it could have passed without any of the new Democrats who won seats in the state legislature last year. Virginia is the 33rd state to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.