Mapping the Coverage Gap

While some lawmakers are spending their time in Richmond making speeches opposing health coverage for Virginia’s low-income adults, thousands of their constituents back home still don’t have access to the health care they need. One of the biggest and best decisions lawmakers can make while hashing out the two-year budget is to close the coverage gap and help tens of thousands of hard-working Virginians across the state get the health coverage they need.

In localities across the state, nearly half or more of the uninsured could get coverage if lawmakers act to close the coverage gap. For example, 55 percent of the uninsured in Montgomery County would qualify for coverage. That’s nearly 6,200 people.

To show how closing the coverage gap will benefit Virginians in every locality, we’ve created the interactive map below. This map complements tables that show the number of uninsured adults in each House and Senate district who could get coverage if Virginia took the federal dollars already allocated to close the coverage gap in our state.

The reality is that the people who could get coverage live and work in every city and county in Virginia, including the hometowns of those lawmakers who most ardently oppose expanding coverage. It’s time for lawmakers to do right by their constituents and close the coverage gap.

–Massey Whorley, Senior Policy Analyst