Virginia Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Virginia?

Virginia rose two spots and is the nation's 21st healthiest state to live in according to the 2012 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• Air pollution dropped by nearly a quarter in the past five years.
• At 14.7 percent, the state has a relatively low percentage of children in poverty. However, the rate increased more than 2 percentage points in the past year and nearly 7 percentage points in the past 10 years.

The bad news:

• About 29 percent of adults are obese, and 10.4 percent are diagnosed with diabetes.
• Geographic disparity ‚Äî the variation in death rates by county ‚Äî is high.

Virginia's best and worst category rankings:

• Violent Crime – 6th
• Poor Physical Health Days – 9th
• Poor Mental Health Days – 10th
• Immunization Coverage – 33rd
• Diabetes – 38th
• Geographic Disparity – 40th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Virginia.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Virginia health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Virginia here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Virginia, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

Does Virginia have a health insurance high risk pool?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Virginia started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Virginia's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

Non-profit sources of health insurance information for Virginia

• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's mission is to provide simplified public and private health insurance eligibility information in order to help more people access coverage. Here is its guide on how to find health insurance in Virginia.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for Virginia can be found here.
• The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers. Search for Virginia health insurance plan report cards.

Virginia state government health insurance resources

Virginia Health Reform Initiative —  A state initiative to implement health care reform.

FAMIS (Family Access to Medical Insuracne Security) —  Virginia’s low-cost health insurance for children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but do not have private health insurance.

Virginia Health Insurance Guide for Consumers —  State of Virgina’s PDF document with information about traditional health insurance and managed care health insurance plans.

Virginia Department of Health —  A site rich in information for Virginia citizens concerned about their health.

Virginia’s Bureau of Insurance —  Consumer information for state citizens dealing with agents or companies.

How did Virginia officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (8)

• Eric Cantor
• J. Forbes
• Robert Goodlatte

• H. Griffith
• Robert Hurt
• E. Rigell

• Rob Wittman
• Frank Wolf

Our
Pick

No (3)

• Gerald Connolly
• James Moran
• Robert Scott