Rhode Island Policy Reporter

RIPR looks at state and federal policy issues that affect life here in the Ocean State. Each report focuses on particular policy areas of interest. Future issues will examine controversial aspects of environmental policy, health care, property tax reform, and education spending. The intention is to look at action rather than talk. We aspire to be a news source that never attends news conferences, where little of substance is ever said.

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Archive

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Tue, 09 Nov 2004

Blue states and Red

There's an interesting study published by a public health group called the United Health Foundation purporting to rank the "healthiest" states. It's not 100% clear to me what they're trying to provide with this report, since it uses measures of health care policies and personal behavior surveys. To me those seem like related but separate questions: a great health care system can be undone by lots of smokers, but what does that show?

Studies are presumably done for a reason: to affect public policy, to persuade people to change their behavior or to identify problems in the making. When the measures are all lumped together, it's no longer clear what the study is about or what the authors want us to know about their data.

But go look at the rankings in the study anyway, and count the blue states near the bottom and the red states near the top. There aren't many of either. Maybe this is the category of problems in the making?

The study findings are here. Scroll down a bit to see the table "Overall Rankings."

12:41 - 09 Nov 2004 [/m0411] link