Study: Texas Remains One of the Nation's Unhealthiest States

Lack of health insurance, poverty and obesity plague state

AUSTIN— Texas ranked 37th among the 50 states in the 2007 edition of America’s Health Rankings. As in 2006, Texas came in dead last in the percentage of the population that had health insurance. Texas has ranked at the bottom or near the bottom in this category since the rankings were first published in 1990. The state ranked 15th in per capita public health spending at $179.

The report notes that the state’s challenges include “a high percentage of children in poverty at 22 percent of people under 18, a high incidence of infectious disease at 26.3 cases per 100,000 population and limited access to primary care with 95.5 primary care physicians per 100,000 population.”

The report also says that “Texas ranks lower for health determinants than for health outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.”

The state’s strengths include “few poor mental and physical health days per month at 3.0 days and 3.3 days, respectively, in the previous 30 days, a low prevalence of smoking at 17.9 percent of the population and a low rate of cancer deaths at 198.2 deaths per 100,000 population.”

The state also saw a drop in infant mortality (6.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 9.3) and infectious disease prevalence, (26.3 cases per 100,000 population, down from 47.8). Obesity, however more than doubled in the past year from 12.3 percent to 26.1 percent of the population. Despite this increase, Texas actually improved its ranking (from 40th to 32nd) due to nationwide increases in obesity that were even larger.

“While it is disappointing to find Texas has not risen in this ranking based on key health indicators, it doesn’t come as a surprise to the physicians of the Texas Medical Association,” says Ladon Homer, MD, immediate past-president of the TMA. “Texas is becoming more obese, older, sicker, and more sedentary. We need to raise our ranking in protecting our children from disease through immunization, we have the highest percentage of uninsured people, and we have too many barriers to patients’ access to the care of a physician medical home.”

America’s Health Rankings is put out jointly by United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention. The report can be read in its entirety at: www.unitedhealthfoundation.org.

— Karen Branz Leach, Texas HealthFlash