Current Virginia insurance issues as of February 2010Virginia insurance issues of affordability and availability are much better than what is normal expected of a southern state.
It's very easy when reviewing health statistics state by state, to develop a bias against southern states and how they handle health care for their residents. Virginia does a bit better than you might expect given especially that it's 11th in percentage of insured. It's also 11th in prevalence of smoking and violent crime, and 14th in primary care physicians. Its failings are in statistics like air pollution where it ranks 34th and immunization where it ranks 40th. What's interesting about its better than average ranking for insured residents, is that besides its FAMIS program for working-class families, it doesn't provide much in safety nets for its residents. It doesn't even have a risk pool for its uninsured residents. Perhaps it's the healthy economy that takes up the slack. Even so, Virginia faces some of the same challenges that most other states, with premiums rising 83 percent from 2002 to 2007 and earnings rising only 20 percent in the same time period. If Virginia manages to keep it's place in it's ranking of uninsured residents, then it would be worthwhile to study them as an example for the rest of the country.
Do you have a different opinion of health coverage in this state?Health coverage policies and laws obviously can change. If your experience with getting health coverage is different than what is written above, or if you just want to share your experiences with health coverage, please feel free. |