The Nation's Health – it’s Not All Bad News

While the overall health of US citizens is only improving slowly, there has been progress in some directions in recent years, according to a report “America’s Health Rankings 2005” from the United Health Foundation.

But first, the bad news. The percentages of people with obesity and of children living in poverty have increased in 2005 to 23% and 18%, respectively .   And the number of people without health insurance has increased too, up to 16%.

Here are the brighter results:

• Motor vehicle deaths, infant mortality, and smoking have all decreased by over 30% since 1990.
• Violent crime and cardiovascular deaths have decreased by about 20% in the last 15 years.
• There has been increased public health expenditure, increased number of children immunized, and a decrease in infectious diseases in the last year.

Now, if we can just stop the rapid rise in obesity rates and improve insurance coverage we’ll be an almost healthy nation. However, there are still great differences between the various States; you must read the full report to find out about them.