Profile of the Uninsured
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When the Virginia Health Care Foundation released its Profile of the Uninsured in Virginia (PDF) in February 2008, approximately 1 million Virginians

(nearly 15%) lacked health insurance coverage.  Today, it's clear

that the economic downturn

has driven those numbers far higher.

Who uninsured Virginians are may surprise you:

They are employed:  The vast majority of the uninsured live in households with at least one full-time (73.7%) or part-time (9.2%) worker.

They work for small companies:  56% of uninsured Virginians live in working households with a self-employed worker or a worker employed by a company with fewer than 100 employees.

They are employed:  The vast majority of the uninsured live in households with at least one full-time (73.7%) or part-time (9.2%) worker.

They work for small companies:  56% of uninsured Virginians live in working households with a self-employed

worker or a worker employed by a company with fewer than 100 employees.

Their employers don't offer health insurance: Only one in four uninsured Virginians (26.8%) live in

households that have an offer of employer-sponsored health insurance.

They are low income:  The majority of Virginia's uninsured are low income.  People with incomes below the

Federal Poverty Level are six times more likely to be uninsured as those whose incomes are 300% of FPL or higher.

They are U.S. citizens:  The overwhelming majority of Virginians without insurance are U.S. citizens (79%).

Their children may be eligible for insurance:  More than two thirds of uninsured children (67.3%) are eligible

for Medicaid/SCHIP.

Most uninsured Virginians are white, non-Hispanic:  47.4% are white, 21.9% are African-American, 22.9% are Hispanic, and 7.9% classified themselves as "other."

What is the impact of being uninsured?

Their health suffers severely:  Uninsured Americans have lower five year survival rates, a higher

likelihood of being diagnosed with late stage cancers, a far lower rate of receiving important screening tests, and are more liklely to have preventable hospitalizations.  (Source:  Kaiser Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured  http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/hcaccess/player.html)

They do not receive the care they need:  Low income uninsured adults in Virginia are much less likely than low-income insured adults to receive care or to have a usual source for health care, and are more likely to have unmet health needs. (Source:  Virginia Health Care Insurance and Access/VHCIAS, 2004)

Their medical needs are unmet:  Almost 60 percent of low-income uninsured adults had an unmet need

for care in the last year because of the financial difficulty of paying for health care.

Their children fare more poorly:  Uninsured children fare worse than insured children on medical care use measures.  Just over 27 percent of uninsured children had no medical care in the previous 12 months compared to 10 percent of insured children. (Source:  The State of Kids' Coverage, SHADAC, 2006)  

The Profile of the Uninsured in Virginia was prepared for the Virginia Health Care Foundation by the Urban Institute and was released in February 2008.