Even before the economic downturn, one million Virginians
had no health insurance. That's 15 percent of the
Commonwealth's non-elderly adults.
Using the most recent statistics available, VHCF's Profile of the Uninsured provides a detailed picture of the Commonwealth's uninsured in the years leading up to
the recession.
One trend is overwhelmingly clear -- fewer employers are making
health insurance available to their employees. Even before
the economic downturn, the availability of employer-sponsored
was declining rapidly, falling over 4% between 2006 and 2008
and nearly 7% between 2000 and 2008.
Who uninsured Virginians are may surprise you:
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They are employed: The vast majority of the uninsured (80%) live in households with at least one full-time
(65%) or part-time (15%) worker. |
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They work for small companies: 46% of uninsured Virginians live in households with a worker employed by a small company (100 or fewer employees) or with a self-employed worker. In contrast, less than 8 percent of those in companies with 500 employees or more are uninsured.
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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. (February 2008 VHCF Profile of the Uninsured) |
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They are U.S. citizens: The overwhelming majority of Virginians without insurance are U.S. citizens (81%). |
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The majority are white, non-Hispanic: 50% of uninsured Virginia adults are caucasian/non-Hispanic, 20% are African-American, 20% are Hispanic, and 10% classify themselves as "other." |
What is the impact of being uninsured?
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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 likely to have preventable hospitalizations. (Source: Kaiser Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured) |
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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)
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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. |
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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 most recent Profile of the Uninsured in Virginia was prepared for the Virginia Health Care Foundation by the Urban Institute and was released in February 2010. For more information on the study, methodology or results, contact VHCF at 804/828-5804.
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