Abigail knows that Virginians are working too hard not to be getting ahead. Abigail’s Affordable Virginia Plan will lower costs, save Virginians money, and make it easier for people who work hard to get ahead.

Healthcare

Making your medications & coverage more affordable. Abigail knows families should not have to choose between prescription drugs and groceries, and that no one should ever go bankrupt because of a medical emergency. In Congress, Abigail fought to lower drug prices for Virginians and stood up to the powerful pharmaceutical companies. As our next Governor, Abigail will pursue commonsense policies that lower costs and put Virginians first.

• Lower costs by cracking down on the middlemen – pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) – responsible for inflating the cost of prescription drugs. To both save taxpayers money and drive down drug costs, direct the effective implementation of a single, Virginia-run PBM for the Medicaid pharmacy benefit.

• Allow more Virginians to use the pharmacy of their choice. Allow more Virginians to use the pharmacy of their choice. Ban PBMs from steering patients to an affiliated pharmacy AND protect out-of-network pharmacies by ensuring they receive a fair and reasonable payment.

• Combat the skyrocketing cost of drugs and improve access to affordable medication. Hold large pharmaceutical companies accountable through strict enforcement of price transparency laws and enforce penalties when there is evidence of price gouging. Reduce costs by making better use of Virginia’s purchasing power and using innovative payment models, such as value-based purchasing for frequently prescribed, high-cost drugs and emerging therapies. Work with the commonwealth’s local bio companies to increase the production of generic drugs Virginians can afford.

• Make sure Virginians get the care they need and deserve. Ensure healthcare providers, not insurance companies, are directing care by limiting prior authorization and step therapy processes, so that Virginians can secure the most effective treatments available.

• Improve access to affordable healthcare options in Virginia’s rural and underserved communities. Ensure Virginians can see a provider by investing in fields with critical shortages, such as primary care, maternal care, and behavioral healthcare. Protect access to safety net providers that serve vulnerable communities, including community health centers, free clinics, and rural hospitals. Ensure people with disabilities have access to services and choice in their care. Implement the Joint Commission on Health Care’s recommendations on telehealth to improve healthcare access and reduce telehealth barriers.

• Improve hospital price transparency. Create an easy-to-use statewide hospital price transparency comparison tool to make sure Virginians are getting the best price available.

• Stop predatory billing practices harming Virginians. Protect Virginia consumers through strict enforcement of Virginia’s surprise billing laws.

• Hold scammers accountable for ripping off Virginians. Direct the Attorney General to identify and crack down on scams that are fraudulently enrolling Virginians in unnecessary coverage.

Housing

Putting homeownership within reach for all Virginians. Abigail wants Virginia to be the nationwide leader in addressing the housing affordability and supply crisis – which means working with anyone, Democrats and Republicans, to make sure more Virginians can achieve their dream of buying a home here in the Commonwealth. She also knows a one-size-fits-all approach won’t solve Virginia’s housing issues. As Governor, Abigail will work with local communities on solutions that make sense for them to increase the availability and affordability of housing for buyers and renters across the Commonwealth.

• Give cities and counties the flexibility they need to build more housing. Ensure all localities may create an affordable housing program to increase the tools at their disposal. Encourage and incentivize the use of localities’ bonding authority for building housing options that meet demand in their communities.

• Respond to Virginia’s unique regional housing challenges without a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Work with Virginia Housing to continue and strengthen the Planning District Commission Housing Development Program to support regional planning solutions that gather local input. Offer technical assistance from Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development to localities that agree to rezone to increase the housing supply.

• Cut red tape and reduce burdensome regulations that slow down housing construction. Streamline reviews and permitting processes for properties identified for redevelopment. Make recommendations on how to increase housing supply by identifying the policies that are driving up production costs that do not impact quality or safety.

• Direct investments toward housing Virginia families can afford. Provide incentives for new construction that increases the supply of housing attainable to first-time homeowners and middle-class families, including starter homes and smaller homes on smaller lots. Leverage unused or underutilized space, including abandoned commercial buildings, by encouraging the redevelopment of these buildings for residential use. Invest in innovative housing solutions that reduce the cost of building.

• Take commonsense steps to increase the housing supply and make housing more attainable. Increase the portion of the Governor of Virginia’s allocation of the state private activity bond that is dedicated to housing, so that Virginia is a strong partner in tackling the housing supply crisis in communities across the Commonwealth. Increase funding for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to increase the supply of affordable housing specifically.

• Preserve and protect existing affordable housing. Provide Virginia localities and qualified entities with a transferable right of first refusal to buy tax-credit supported multifamily housing when its affordability period expires. Support community land trusts. Invest in the rehabilitation of affordable housing, including manufactured homes, to make sure all Virginians have a safe place to sleep at night.

• Address the rise in homelessness and evictions. Re-establish an Interagency Council on Homelessness and Housing to drive down the rate of homelessness and evictions in Virginia. Invest in the commonwealth’s programs that prevent people from experiencing homelessness, such as the DHCD Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot (VERP) to expand its reach to protect vulnerable Virginians, including seniors, veterans, disabled individuals, families with young children, and individuals experiencing domestic violence, substance use disorder, or a mental health crisis. Improve protections for renters, including extending the timeline before a landlord can begin eviction proceedings from 5 to 14 days to allow people to get their next paycheck before being evicted.

• Strengthen Virginia’s fair housing protections to prevent discrimination in housing. Strengthen and prioritize the Virginia Fair Housing Office to enforce antidiscrimination laws and health & safety standards. Work with the Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights to crack down on predatory actors.

Energy

Lowering your energy bills and saving you money. Abigail believes that the path towards long-term, sustainable energy independence will lower rates for consumers, create jobs for thousands of Virginians, and protect our environment. To get there, Abigail is ready to improve statewide energy planning and ensure our regulatory system is aligned to meet our goals and prioritize Virginia ratepayers.

• Make Virginia more energy independent by increasing local generation. Focus on expanding electricity generation sources with low or no fuel cost, to lower prices and minimize price volatility. Support local energy production, such as our nation-leading offshore wind development and incentivize the businesses that make component parts to locate their operations here in Virginia. Expand and incentivize the development and deployment of solar energy projects in commonsense locations such as abandoned mine sites, former industrial sites, rooftops, and parking lots, and locations where the reduction in energy costs would have an impact on the local community, such as schools and public buildings. Encourage the continued development of advanced energy technologies, such as small modular nuclear reactors, fusion, geothermal, and hydrogen, including by facilitating agreements between utilities and high-energy use customers to pilot their development and encouraging collaboration with Virginia’s higher education institutions to pursue further research and development.

• Make sure data centers don’t drive up energy costs for everyone else in Virginia. To meet rapidly increasing demand and reduce cost hikes on Virginia families, make sure data centers are paying their fair share of the cost of new electricity generation and transmission that must be built to power them. Encourage clean on-site and off-site generation and storage at data centers.

• Reduce consumers’ bills and wasted electricity by maximizing the use of energy efficiency measures, such as home weatherization. To both reduce consumers’ costs and expand job opportunities for Virginians, maximize all available low-cost energy efficiency opportunities – including home weatherization, on-bill financing for efficiency projects, and small business energy efficiency programs. Monitor the energy efficiency goals for Dominion and Appalachian Power, and work with utilities and other stakeholders to put programs in place so they can achieve and grow their goals. Negotiate the best ratepayer deal to rejoin RGGI, and use funding from the revenue for energy efficiency projects, in line with Virginia statute.

• Prevent skyrocketing energy bills for Virginia families by making better use of existing resources. Focus on the deployment of both short- and long-duration energy storage so we can store energy at low-cost and low-use times and use it at high-cost and high-use times. Support the implementation of the recently passed pilot program to allow businesses and households to opt in to have their thermostats, appliances, and solar arrays support the grid on demand — reducing the need to build more expensive power plants and more transmission lines to cover peak demand hours. Direct the Virginia Department of Energy to work with the State Corporation Commission and other stakeholders to evaluate the benefits, impacts, and implementation recommendations for demand response programs and other demand-side management programs in the Commonwealth. Use existing resources more efficiently by using grid-enhancing technologies and exploring opportunities for surplus interconnection, such as solar plus storage.

• Address regulatory issues to speed up new energy projects, drive down costs, and increase certainty. Work collaboratively with other Governors to address issues that apply to the regional transmission organization, such as interconnection approval timelines, interconnection fees, regional generation capacity, and the price of wholesale power. Lower costs for consumers by speeding up timelines to bring new projects online and making fees for new projects more transparent. Ensure regulatory agencies in Virginia, such as DEQ and VDOT, are adequately staffed to deliver timely responses to permit applications. Provide local governments with better tools to assess new energy projects.

• Ensure that eligible Virginians are making use of the resources currently available to them to lower their energy bills. Work with utilities to expand uptake of Virginia’s Percentage of Income Payment program, which provides bill assistance for low-income customers in Dominion and APCO territory, by increasing awareness and outreach to eligible customers. Encourage additional Virginians to make use of cost-reducing options such as community solar and cost-smoothing options such as budget billing.