The State of Your Health - U.S. Health Reports & Rankings

The State Of Your Health
...May Depend on the Health of Your State

The United States spends more per person on health care than any other industrialized nation. How does this spending reflect in our health care?

The annual American's Health: State Health Rankings are the closest we can come to a report card for how well our money is making us. For Vermont and Massachusetts the news is good. They tied for the top rank. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi didn't make as good a showing.

How did your state do? Here are the results...

2010 overall health score rankings by State :

Rank	State	Score
1	Vermont	1.131
2	Massachusetts	0.906
3	New Hampshire	0.892
4	Connecticut	0.873
5	Hawaii	0.852
6	Minnesota	0.844
7	Utah	0.825
8	Maine	0.627
9	Idaho	0.569
10	Rhode Island	0.553
11	Nebraska	0.550
11	Washington	0.550
13	Colorado	0.545
14	Iowa	0.524
15	Oregon	0.516
16	North Dakota	0.511
17	New Jersey	0.487
18	Wisconsin	0.468
19	Wyoming	0.419
20	South Dakota	0.324
21	Maryland	0.274
22	Virginia	0.266
23	Kansas	0.258
24	New York	0.250
25	Montana	0.243
26	California	0.230
27	Pennsylvania	0.046
28	Alaska	0.033
29	Illinois	0.031
30	Michigan	0.024
31	Arizona	0.009
32	Delaware	-0.032
33	New Mexico	-0.056
34	Ohio	-0.070
35	North Carolina	-0.181
36	Georgia	-0.207
37	Florida	-0.210
38	Indiana	-0.322
39	Missouri	-0.325
40	Texas	-0.364
41	South Carolina	-0.397
42	Tennessee	-0.423
43	West Virginia	-0.449
44	Kentucky	-0.456
45	Alabama	-0.519
46	Oklahoma	-0.521
47	Nevada	-0.533
48	Arkansas	-0.605
49	Louisiana	-0.664
50	Mississippi	-0.768

*Scores indicate the percentage a state is above or below the national norm.

What these rankings mean

The report looked at a number of health measures over the last 14 years. They took into account how many people were still smokers - more than 20% of Americans admit that they have not kicked the habit - and several other health care and habits that tend to lead to a long and healthy life:

Prevalence of smoking
Motor vehicle deaths
Violent crime
Risk for heart disease
High school graduation
Children in poverty
Adequacy of prenatal care
Lack of heath insurance
Financial support for public health care
Occupational fatalities
Limited activity days
Heart-related deaths
Cancer deaths
Infectious disease cases
Total deaths per 100,000 population
Infant mortality
Premature death

What this all means

These rankings are tools for public health and government officials. Like all statistics, they are pictures of large populations - not snapshots of individuals. If you live in one of the states at the bottom of the list, you may see your 150th birthday. On the other hand, if you are a resident of one of the top ten states - you can still get injured in a car accident while not wearing a seatbelt!

Don't pack your bags and move, but do contact your public officials and ask what can be done to improve these statistics.

SOURCE:
America's Health: State Health Rankings

More about the state of the nation's health around the Web:

AFL - CIO What's Wrong with America's Health Care

The World Health Report

also see related feature -> U.S. Health Care - It's the Price, Stupid