People who don't have health insurance, fail to present it are visiting Virginia hospital emergency departments more often

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — People who either don't have health insurance or fail to present it are visiting Virginia hospital emergency departments more often.

According to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), those types of visits increased by nearly 50% in 2025 compared to 2022.

Julian Walker with VHHA said it's possible that some of the increase may be due to the unwinding of a federal policy that allowed most people to stay on the Medicaid rolls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"But remember that ended in 2023, and this data is through 2025, and so there is, I suspect, more going on than just that," Walker told 8News.

Walker said the rise comes as the Virginia Health Care Foundation found that Virginia's uninsured rate crept up slightly in 2024 from a historic low rate in 2023.

Walker said that's important because typically when the uninsured rate goes up, so does the amount of care hospitals provide that they aren't paid for.

"The cost of that charity care ultimately gets reflected back into the insurance rates that businesses, Virginia families, Virginia workers pay," Walker said.

Walker said what's even more notable is the data doesn't take into account the effects of lawmakers failing to extend certain ACA tax credits and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

"Across the nation, it's projected that millions will lose healthcare coverage under the provisions of HR 1, and that potentially hundreds of thousands of Virginians could lose healthcare coverage," Walker said.

It's important to note that emergency department volume was up 11% overall in 2025, compared to 2022.