Hawaii the tops when it comes to health care

Jun 13 2007

Living in Hawaii has more advantages than just sunshine and beautiful beaches. Health wise Hawaii is the top place to be when it comes to accessing safe and affordable medical care.

According to a new report levels of health care vary greatly from state to state in the U.S. and Hawaii has come out top while Mississippi and Oklahoma tie for bottom place.

The results of a new survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund has ranked the health-system performance of all 50 states including Washington, D.C.

The researchers say if every state could achieve the low levels of mortality achieved by Hawaii, some 90,000 fewer deaths before the age of 75 would occur annually and the Medicare program would save the government an estimated 22 billion dollars.

They say even in the best states, performance fell far short of optimal standards.

The survey found the percentage of adults age 50 or older receiving all recommended preventive care ranged from a high of 50 percent in Minnesota to a low of 33 percent in Idaho, while the percentage of diabetics receiving proper care ranged from 65 percent in Hawaii to 29 percent in Mississippi.

The study highlighted some of the reasons behind the high cost of health care in the United States by measuring avoidable uses of hospitals and medical care.

It found if all states could reach low levels of preventable hospital admissions and readmissions for Medicare recipients, hospitalization rates for senior citizens alone could be reduced by 30 percent to 47 percent and save Medicare $2 to $5 billion a year.

Hawaii was the first state to mandate that employers provide health insurance for workers, and scored the highest when compared to other states in areas of safe and affordable medical care in the number of uninsured, breast cancer deaths as well as preventable hospital admissions.

Research director Cathy Schoen, says the wide variation adds up to substantial human and economic costs to the nation and as far as healthcare goes where you live in the U.S. is a factor.

Hawaii is closely followed by Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine in terms of providing safe and affordable health care cover.

Experts say at present it is estimated that more than 45 million people in the U.S. are living without any form of health care cover.