Current Ohio insurance issues as of February 2010Ohio insurance affordability and availability issues reflect the contrasts of a state that alternately takes its place near the top and bottom of many health rankings. It would be interesting to find out where this state is healthwise given its pivotal role in the last couple of elections. Like a few other states, it's a mixed bag. It ranks 40th in prevalence of obesity, 41st in preventable hospitalizations, 47th in public health funding and 42nd in cancer deaths. It makes you think that in the elections where they cast the deciding votes, maybe they zigged when they should have zagged. Of course, I have to concede that some of those statistics, particularly the obesity, is a matter of lifestyle and choice. On the plus side for them, they are 12th in occupational fatalities and 6th in immunization coverage. Otherwise, they are a blueprint of the typical state where things seem okay to a lot of people but quietly, more and more people are losing insurance. They demographically fall along the same lines for most states, not able to afford private coverage, affected by the economy, mostly working-class white or minority. It's hard to tell how supportive this state is for national health care reform, given that they've been in serious economic trouble before and voted counter-intuitively.
|