Our Health Policy Matters

If you want to be healthy, then be wealthy. Or at least live in a wealthy county. That’s the obvious message you get from combining the recently released County Health Rankings with poverty and income data from the 2010 U.S. Census. Source: US Census and County Health Rankings, 2012 But if you look closer, you see something else.  It’s not just that poorer people are less healthy than their wealthier counterparts.  People are less healthy where too few resources are invested in public health. Earlier this month, the 2012 County Health Rankings were released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  In the release , Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of RWJF, said that “where we live, work, learn, and play has a big role in determining how healthy we are and how long we live.” She’s right. The poorest counties – as measured by the percentage of people living below the poverty ...

If you want to be healthy, then be wealthy. Or at least live in a wealthy county. That’s the obvious message you get from combining the recently released County Health Rankings with poverty and income data from the 2010 U.S. Census. Source: US Census and County Health Rankings, 2012 But if you look closer, you see something else.  It’s not just that poorer people are less healthy than their wealthier counterparts.  People are less healthy where too few resources are invested in public health. Earlier this month, the 2012 County Health Rankings were released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  In the release , Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of RWJF, said that “where we live, work, learn, and play has a big role in determining how healthy we are and how long we live.” She’s right. The poorest counties – as measured by the percentage of people living below the poverty ...

The President, the Congress, and State Legislatures are struggling mightily through their budget debates as if the health of the nation is at stake.   It is. But not in the way they think. Whether wealthy people will pay more or less taxes, young people will get fewer social security benefits, and the governments will get smaller are important considerations. But they are only important to people who are healthy enough to care about them. What about those who aren’t?   source: County Health Rankings, 2011 If someone were to tell you right now that you had a medical condition that was going to take 25 years from your life, would cutting spending and giving corporations tax breaks be your top legislative priority?   Would you vote for anyone who made those a bigger priority than your health? Here are some of the people whose life expectancy today is 25 years less than the norm: A person born with Down Syndrome. A person born with Cystic Fibrosis. A young person diagnos...

The President, the Congress, and State Legislatures are struggling mightily through their budget debates as if the health of the nation is at stake.   It is. But not in the way they think. Whether wealthy people will pay more or less taxes, young people will get fewer social security benefits, and the governments will get smaller are important considerations. But they are only important to people who are healthy enough to care about them. What about those who aren’t?   source: County Health Rankings, 2011 If someone were to tell you right now that you had a medical condition that was going to take 25 years from your life, would cutting spending and giving corporations tax breaks be your top legislative priority?   Would you vote for anyone who made those a bigger priority than your health? Here are some of the people whose life expectancy today is 25 years less than the norm: A person born with Down Syndrome. A person born with Cystic Fibrosis. A young person diagnos...