Much of this increased use is coming from the roughly 376,000 Virginians who have lost Medicaid coverage. The state is resuming normal eligibility and re-enrollment practices with the end of the federal emergency funds that allowed state Medicaid officials to suspend these rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Clinics are seeing more uninsured patients, and we expect this trend to continue as Medicaid unwinding wraps up,” said Rufus Phillips, chief executive officer of the free clinics’ association.
Clinics expect to see still more patients, because Virginia’s Medicaid agency still needs to review eligibility for about 206,000 people.
Inflation, too, has been leading people to free clinics, as they try to stretch paychecks to cover rising food, housing and energy costs.
Patients’ need for dental and mental health care are also straining free clinics’ resources.
Inflation also has hit free clinics’ budgets as medication, supplies and rent costs rise. At the same time, many of the volunteers the clinics have long relied on to provide free care to the needy are struggling to find the time and afford the expense of donating their services.
The clinics, which provided about $114 million a year worth of free care to 75,000 Virginians in fiscal year 2022, rely in part on state funding of $5.3 million a year to cover their bills, a figure that has not increased since 2016.
Phillips said he hopes the General Assembly will boost that by the $5 million a year that Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, and state Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, were only partially successful in convincing the legislature to support.
The budget the General Assembly approved, now on ice as lawmakers and the governor try to come up with a compromise spending plan, approved a $1.5 million a year increase.
“Virginia’s free clinics are vital to the state’s health care safety net,” Philips said. “Most clinic patients are working adults with chronic conditions. Clinic teams are helping them stay healthy and out of emergency rooms.
“But with increased economic pressures that aren’t slowing down, clinic leaders need the legislature’s help more than ever.”
Virginia has 69 free and charitable clinics serving patients in all regions of the state.
10 U.S. cities that saw the biggest annual rent increases and drops over one year
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