As employee health becomes a bigger factor for employers, New England should be selling itself against Sun Belt states as the healthiest region in the country.
The differences are stark, according to the 2011 rankings established by the United Health Foundation.
Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut are the three healthiest states in the U.S., while Massachusetts is fifth and Maine eighth. No other region of the country has such a cluster of healthy states.
The rankings are based upon rates of school graduation, violent crime, infectious disease, prenatal care, public health funding, uninsured populations, immunization and the availability of primary care physicians.
While New England did lose basic industries over the past two decades to warm climes, those states are almost uniformly associated with lower levels of educational achievement and other indicators of health.
The bottom five include Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and, in last place, Mississippi.
Texas and Florida aren’t much better, ranking 44th and 34th, respectively.
Maybe this didn’t make much of a difference 20 years ago, but employers have certainly begun to realize that having healthy workers leads to increased productivity and lower health care coverage costs.
Many of the low-wage jobs in the South may not include health-care coverage for employees, but those industries are gradually fading.
New England should be positioning itself to attract the high-wage/high-skill jobs of the future, where employee health care — and employee health — are crucial.
While Maine may rank eighth in the nation, it should be working to improve that ranking and promote its relatively high overall rate of public health compared to other states.
A recent Health Index Report from MaineHealth found that Maine needs extra work in three areas: low immunization coverage, high rate of cancer deaths and high prevalence of smoking.
On the bright side, Maine had the highest health rankings among the 26 states with household incomes of less than $50,000 per year. While Maine was eightth in the country overall, it was the healthiest among that group of states.
It has long been established that a population’s general health increases with personal income and education.
All of which are inextricably linked: better-educated people are more likely to adopt healthy habits and work in jobs that provide them with better health care. They are able to afford higher-quality food and have better access to supermarkets that sell a variety of healthy foods.
Unfortunately, the MaineHealth report found Maine’s statistics are worsening in two areas: obesity and smoking.
There are wide variations in health among our three counties in Western Maine. Franklin County is the second healthiest in the state and Androscoggin is 12th; Oxford County is 16th and last in the state.
One of the key factors there may be smoking: While 20-25 percent of adults in Franklin and Androscoggin counties smoke, more than 30 percent smoke in Oxford County.
While Oxford County is among three counties in Maine with the highest obesity rates, Androscoggin County is slightly better and Franklin County even better.
It will be interesting to see what effect recent cuts to the state’s health care programs for the poor have on Maine’s relatively high health rankings.
The 2012 report may show Maine dropping in the rankings, which would certainly hurt the state’s image and ability to recruit new business.
rrhoades@sunjournal.com
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