December 5, 2006 -- Nation’s Health Gets Its Annual Check-Up

A yearly assessment of the healthiness of the United States, taking into account personal behaviors, the environments in which people live and work, decisions made by public officials, and the quality of medical care delivered by health professionals, ranks Minnesota as the healthiest state for the fourth year in a row, followed by New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Louisiana is ranked as the least healthy state, with Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas making up the bottom five. The report, which is produced by United Health Foundation in partnership with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, notes that the United States continues to trail other countries in important statistics such as healthy life expectancy and infant mortality. The report also notes that since 2000, the rate of improvement in overall health status has stagnated, due largely to the persistence of tobacco use, the relatively high infant mortality rate, and increasing prevalence of obesity. There has been an increase in the percentage of uninsured people, which now stands at 15.9 percent of the U.S. population. The entire report, "America's Health Rankings," can be viewed at www.americashealthrankings.org or www.unitedhealthfoundation.org.