Vermont called healthiest state, Louisiana last
Wed Dec 3, 2008 4:57pm EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (31) [-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Louisiana has displaced Mississippi as the unhealthiest U.S. state and other Southern states were close rivals due to high obesity and smoking rates in new rankings that deemed Vermont the healthiest.

The overall health of Americans remained static for a fourth year, according to an annual report issued on Wednesday assessing a series of measures also including binge drinking, health insurance coverage, air pollution, infectious disease rates, crime levels and immunization coverage.

Many Southern states were clustered near the bottom of the rankings. The region has some of the highest rates of obesity, which contributes to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer, as well as high rates of smoking, which causes cancer, lung disease, heart disease and other problems.

One in five Louisianians lacked health insurance, while 31 percent were obese. It also suffers from high child poverty, infant mortality, premature death rate and cancer deaths, according to the report.

"We've just not made any improvement in the overall healthiness of the nation," said Dr. Reed Tuckson of UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, and the private United Health Foundation.

The foundation, American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention advocacy group put together the 19th annual state-by-state rankings.

It was the second straight year that Vermont topped the rankings. It was followed by Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Idaho and Maine.

Louisiana fell from 49th to 50th, replacing Mississippi. Rounding out the bottom 10 were South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nevada and Georgia.

California, the most populous state, ranked 24th and New York 25th.
Vermont, with the second smallest population of any state, had the third-highest public health spending and an obesity rate of 22 percent, four points below the national average.

It also had low child poverty and violent crime, a large number of doctors per capita and good high school graduation rates.

Hawaii had similarly low obesity, the highest public health spending, little air pollution, low rates of uninsured people, a low rate of preventable hospitalizations and low rates of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Mississippi led the nation in obesity at 33 percent of the population, while Colorado was lowest at 19 percent.

President-elect Barack Obama and leading lawmakers want to engineer a major reform of U.S. health care, which leaves 45.7 million people without coverage while costing more than any other national health system.
The United States trails many other industrialized nations in infant mortality, life expectancy, mortality for treatable conditions and overall health care system performance.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

New Hampshire is among the top ten.

Yes. A major factor in health is population. Even though NH does not have as progressive a view toward state services as NY does, NH has a relatively young and affluent population that takes care of itself. That is really the reason Vermont does so well, too.
Another major factor is preventive medicine. We all know that not maintaining a car, house, bridge, or whatever, is more costly in the long run. Humans are the same. This is the reason I feel so strongly that dental care should be provided all children because dental problems neglected in children become major health problems in adults.
Hopefully, a new day is dawning and Americans are finally realizing that universal, single payer health care systems save money and provide better care for the nation as a whole.

Something certainly has to change. The health care industry is the next industry to be examined, I hope, for taking advantage of Americans. We are being choked with rising costs.

Exactly, the "insurers" provide no value added, they are just a profit center feeding off the doctors and hospitals. Their objective is not good health care, it is profits for the share holders.

Well duh! Isn't that the "American" way? You probably don't like Haliburton either.

Peculiar how “progressive views” are held in NYS yet many of the states policies appear to be repressive.

I would be interested in hearing what NYS health policies you consider repressive, or were you talking in general. If the latter, I would be interested in hearing what those are.

Obviously, Eomer, you have nothing factual or specific to offer. That is too bad, but Obama is going to ask the American public to give their opinions on the nation's health care system.

Citizens' advice sought on health-care overhaul
Former Sen. Tom Daschle, in his first major speech since being asked to head President-elect Obama's health-care overhaul, has announced a nationwide campaign this month to solicit public input on improving the nation's health-care system.

By Noam N. Levey

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Tom Daschle, in his first major speech since being asked to head President-elect Obama's health-care overhaul, has announced a nationwide campaign this month to solicit public input on improving the nation's health-care system.

The plan — to ask Americans to host meetings to talk about the overhaul — appears designed to avoid the appearance that the new administration is developing an agenda behind closed doors.

That perception is widely believed to have helped doom the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul efforts in the early '90s, when Hillary Rodham Clinton, as first lady, led a monthslong task force that wrote the administration's legislation.

"We want an open process," Daschle told a health-care forum Friday in Denver.

In Washington, Democratic officials have been meeting privately for weeks to develop legislation that senior lawmakers hope to unveil in early January to reshape the country's health-care system, a longtime goal of the party.

Obama, Daschle and others — including Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts — envision an effort by the federal government to ensure that all Americans get health coverage, to bring down health-care costs and to improve the quality of care.

Friday, Daschle, a former Senate majority leader Obama has asked to be Health and Human Services secretary, said the transition team would send discussion packets to any American willing to host a house party in the last two weeks of December.

He invited Americans to sign up for meetings, one of which he plans to attend, at the transition Web site at http://www.change.gov.

Roughly 10,000 people, many of them involved in grass-roots efforts to push health-care change, have submitted comments on the Web site, Daschle said.

The Obama team's maneuver reinforces the message that Obama has delivered since his election last month that he intends to take aggressive steps to tackle the issue despite the worsening economic situation.

"President-elect Obama has made health reform one of his top priorities," Daschle said. "And I'm here to tell you that his commitment to changing the health-care system remains strong and focused."

Or simply the time spent with you is not worth it...obviously.