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Health Disparities Statistics
HEALTH INSURANCE
A significant measure of the access issue is the proportion of people who have health
insurance. In the VI, the overall percentage of respondents without health care
coverage declined slightly from 33 percent in 1991 to 29 percent in 1995 (The
Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) 1999 Summary Report). In
1997, 40 percent of adults were without coverage and in 1999 roughly 38 percent
reported that they had no health insurance. The following graphs detail V.I. residents
without Health Insurance coverage from 1991-1999, and those without coverage based
on Age, Gender and Education Levels.
DISPARITIES
Limitations in access to care extend beyond basic causes, such as a shortage of health
care providers (prevalent in the VI), or a lack of facilities. Individuals also may lack a
usual source of care or may face other barriers to receiving services, such as financial
barriers (having no health insurance or being underinsured), and personal barriers
(sexual orientation, cultural differences, language differences, not knowing what to do,
or environmental challenges for people with disabilities).
The 1999 BRFSS reveals that substantial disparities remain in health insurance
coverage for certain populations in the Virgin Islands. The majority of those without
health care coverage were younger adults, particularly those between l8 and 24 years
(51%), Hispanics (49%), Blacks (40%).
OPPORTUNITIES
The Virgin Islands Department of Health increasingly recognizes the critical role of
preventive services across the continuum of care and the need for providers to
incorporate preventive services into patient visits. Continued progress in the delivery of
clinical preventive services will require better collection and reporting of data on the
delivery of recommended services by providers and health plans. This information will
allow providers and administrators to identify the services and groups of people where
the biggest gaps exist in receiving needed health care services. The best information
systems allow both cross-sectional comparisons of performance by providers, plans,
systems, and localities, as well as, long-term analyses of the health and health care of
individuals.
Tracking of individuals has been used effectively for a limited number of services,
primarily immunizations and cancer screenings. Expanding effective data collection
efforts, to cover additional services and to include more providers and health care
systems are the VI’s current challenge. Measuring how well preventive care is provided
under different systems is an essential first step in motivating those systems that are not
performing well to develop the information tools and incentives to improve care.
Marked increases in trauma, motor vehicular accidents, cardiac complications, and
respiratory complications have been noted over the past few years. Gradual increases
have been noted over the same time period in seizure, diabetes, obstetrics,
gastrointestinal, and pediatric cases. Also noted has been the increase of transport
from other medical facilities and physicians offices. During fiscal year 2002, the
Emergency Medical Services on St. Croix responded to the following health conditions
as noted below.
Source: United States Virgin Islands Healthy Virgin Islands 2010
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