Posted on 11/13/2002 9:03:46 AM PST by SheLion
Southern States Are Least Healthy
Annual Rankings Show U.S. Health 15% Better Than in 1990
Nov. 11, 2002 -- It's apparently good for your health to live in New England, and not so good in the South. An annual ranking of states according to the health of their populations shows five of the top 10 states are in the Northeast and seven of the bottom 10 are in the South.
The UnitedHealth Foundation ranks New Hampshire as the healthiest state for the sixth time in the 13 years of the rankings. In the top 10, New Hampshire is followed by Minnesota, Massachusetts, Utah, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, Colorado, North Dakota, and Maine.
The least healthy state is Louisiana. The bottom ten are West Virginia, New Mexico, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
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The foundation based its rankings on factors including smoking, motor vehicle deaths, heart disease risk, high school graduation rates, children in poverty, prenatal care, access to health insurance, and public spending on healthcare.
It also took into account deaths from and incidence of certain diseases, deaths on the job, infant mortality, and premature death.
According to the foundation's report, the rankings reflect a state's average resident. But major disparities exist among people of different races in all states. For example, black adults have a far greater chance of dying before age 75 than Asians. And white, pregnant women are far more likely to get prenatal care than Native Americans.
Overall, the health of the United States declined by less than a percentage point from 2001 to 2002. The foundation attributed that to a decrease in public spending on healthcare and an increase in premature death (before age 75).
About 20 states had much improved health scores this year from the year before. The best increases were in Wyoming, Nevada, and South Dakota, which significantly reduced the number of their children living in poverty and improved other conditions.
Twenty-six states had worse health scores; the biggest decreases were in Maryland, Alaska, and Mississippi -- where smoking actually increased.
Since the UnitedHealth Foundation began ranking states in 1990, it says the health of the U.S. has improved 15.5% and all states individually have improved. The prime reasons are:
The UnitedHealth Foundation is a private, nonprofit health information organization. It based its report on data from federal agencies. |
Hey! I know it! We lived in Florida for three years, and Florida was always called "Denture Heaven," or "Retirement Heaven." Lots of old folks down there. Or even "Snow Birds." The old folks who live in Florida during the winter and go back north in the summer.
I thought you'd like this article. hehe! 
Makes you wonder who is paying for this garbage, doesn't it?
I'm in east Tennessee, and these loons deep-fry EVERYTHING! Coincidentally; they are always sick as dogs around here.
95% probability is that we are paying for it through our taxes via some sort of "government grant" to the group doing the "study"
Can't argue with that. I have watched relatives spend the last ten or fifteen years of their lives rotting away in nursing homes. I have asked my wife to put a bullet in my head before that happens. Better to live a full life and die at 60...absolutely agree. (Besides, I wouldn't want to be a financial burden to my fellow taxpapers wheezing along on Medicare the last 40 years of my life.)
I did. Keep me pinged please!
Signed,
Ruthy in Denture Heaven, waiting for her retirement and looking out for snowbird droppings...
The EPA is being sued for not enforcing air quality standards in Atlanta. Most days last summer were either 'code orange' (unhealthy) or 'code yellow' (unhealthy for sensitive groups). There may have been 3 or so 'code red' days and doctors were telling people not to go outside at all.. pretty sad. Air quality in the Atlanta region is some of the worst in the nation. On bad days the skies are purplish-red and so smoggy you can't see the clouds. Nearly everyone in my family suffers from chest pains and breathing problems when the air gets chunky.
Where do you get this BS? Do you live in the smokstack of plant Bowen?
I live about 15 miles south of the city.
Child molestors should not be allowed to be leaders in the BSA, period. If they molest, they should be prosecuted, period.
I never said that all homosxual men would do so - as you well know. But hey, calling people names like 'hater' and 'bigot' is the sine qua non of the homosexual movement.
I said he(she?) _may_ be a bigot if, but whatever.. most people who are opposed to the homosexual movement are bigots and intolerant.
What does this have to do with anything I said?
This is a load of the first two syllables of your screen name. I live here in Atlanta too, and I have never seen the "skies are purplish-red and so smoggy you can't see the clouds As far as the code yellow crap goes this is just more government junk science without any justification or basis in reality.
Fabricating nonsense to support a false position is a standard liberal/statist tactic, and the EPA is one of the worst offenders in pulling "standards" out of their collective (and collectivist) a$$es. Tell me, do you subscribe to the Urinal/Constipation? If you really have trouble breathing when you hear the EPA's willing accomplices in the media playing chicken little I suggest that you seek medical help for psychosomatic problems.
PS Who's suing the EPA, Earth F!rst, Greenpeace?
This is a load of the first two syllables of your screen name. I live here in Atlanta too, and I have never seen the "skies are purplish-red and so smoggy you can't see the clouds As far as the code yellow crap goes this is just more government junk science without any justification or basis in reality.
Look up on a smoggy day. Actually, it's medical science.. pollution damages our bodies. On some days it is bad, on some days it's worse.
Fabricating nonsense to support a false position is a standard liberal/statist tactic, and the EPA is one of the worst offenders in pulling "standards" out of their collective (and collectivist) a$$es. Tell me, do you subscribe to the Urinal/Constipation? If you really have trouble breathing when you hear the EPA's willing accomplices in the media playing chicken little I suggest that you seek medical help for psychosomatic problems.
PS Who's suing the EPA, Earth F!rst, Greenpeace?
I believe it's Greenpeace.
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