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United States Virgin Islands

The U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) are a group of islands and an unincorporated U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea. It lies on the same side of the international date line as the continental U.S.

It is composed of the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, Water Island (sometimes not represented in maps and publications), and several dozen smaller islands.

Government

The U.S. president is considered head of state, while the USVI governor is the head of government.

Healthcare and Facilities

The Department of Health functions as both the state regulatory agency and the territorial public health agency for USVI. The Department of Health provides primary care and emergency medical services. It offers health promotion and preventive medicine programs, including maternal and child health, family planning, environmental sanitation, mental health, and drug and substance abuse prevention. The Department of Health is organized into four divisions, which collectively contain 34 activity centers that carry out health services and programs: the Office of the Commissioner, the Division of Fiscal Affairs, the Division of Administrative Services and Management, and Preventative Health Services.

The USVI operates a Medicaid program to support care for low-income residents. Territorial Medicaid programs are underfunded relative to the states. Unlike state Medicaid programs, territorial Medicaid programs have (1) a cap on total federal contributions and (2) a federal funding match set by law rather than based on per-capita incomes. Learn more about the need for equitable Medicaid funding for the territories via ASTHO's Permanent, Sustainable Medicaid Funding for U.S. Territories Policy Statement.

Key Priorities

In the 2016 ASTHO Profile report, the USVI Department of Health prioritized the following:

  • Implementing activities to address health equity.
  • Recruiting to build their workforce capacity.
  • Improving their Zika response.

Disease Burden

Like other Island Jurisdictions, USVI works to address significant noncommunicable and communicable disease burdens. Top causes of death in 2019 were:

  • Ischemic heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Diabetes
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Prostate cancer