Healthiest State Blog

Seattle Times Editorial

Washingon Health Foundation President & CEO Greg Vigdor is featured in a December 22 Seattle Times editorial. The title of the article is: Health care reform must focus on individuals too.

In it, Vigdor shares his thoughts on the success of the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign and its role in Washington's state health rank moving from 15th to 10th since 2004. He also focused attention on the areas where our state continues to struggle....particularly obesity and preventive care.

America's Healthiest and Unhealthiest States

TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to NBC’s chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman about the results of the annual state-by-state analysis of America’s health recently published by the United Health Foundation. In that report, Vermont was named America's healthiest state for the second straight year.

Washington state is 10th in this year's UHF health rankings. That is up two spots from a year ago and it is five spots better than our state's rank when the Washington Health Foundation initiated its Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign four years ago.

Click To Play

UHF State Health Rankings Released

      

United Health Foundation
Confirms Our June Announcement

      

More great news for all of us working to make Washington the Healthiest State in the Nation!

 The United Health Foundation (UHF) just released its annual report, America’s Health Rankings,  and their numbers confirm what the Washington Health Foundation (WHF) released in its 2008 Healthiest State Report Card several months ago:  Washington is back in the Top Ten.
      
The extensive UHF report puts Washington at #10 —  up two spots from a year ago. “We are making  great strides, but there is still a lot of work to be done before we reach our goal of becoming the Healthiest State in the Nation,” said Greg Vigdor,  WHF President & CEO.                                                                                                          

Washington Health Foundation President & CEO Greg Vigdor reacts to newest UHF health rankings.

         

“With the recent elections, we have a tremendous opportunity to usher in a new era of change —  and we are leading the way here in Washington state.  We look forward to working  together with you on the next chapter of health improvement to make Washington the Healthiest State  in the Nation, and America the Healthiest Nation in the World.”       

Washington’s national health rank had slipped to #15 when we kicked off the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign back in 2004. Since that time —  nearly 40,000 individuals, 1,200 organizations and 400 schools have joined our Healthiest State Campaign making it the largest grassroots movement for health in state history! 

According to this year’s UHF Report, Washington’s strengths continued to be:       

       
• Low       prevalence of smoking
       
• Low       rate of preventable hospitalizations
       
• Low       percentage of children in poverty
      

And Washington  continues to face the same challenges:      

       
• Low       immunization coverage
       
• Low       high school graduation rate
       
• High      geographic disparity within the state
      

Another challenge for Washington continues to be rapidly increasing obesity rates —  up 176% since 1990. This year's UHF report also includes a personal note from the head of the American Public Health Association titled, "Building the Healthiest Nation in One Generation". He wrote, "We have the potential to greatly improve our population's health in the future, but changing our health system will require innovation.  The old way of doing things hasn't worked, and we must find models that produce better outcomes."

We agree. Which is why we built our own model of change four years ago. And moving up five spots in those four short years may just indicate that we’re on to something here in Washington state.

Thanks for doing your part!

  The Seattle Times featured this story in its December 5, 2008 newspaper. The article was titled: U.S. health report card ranks Washington at No. 10. Read the article here.