Still Not Number 1

We're not a contender nor are we an also ran. We got invited to the big show and just being invited is enough. To paraphrase Rick Blaine "we'll always have Washington." We'll have our higher salaries, our lower Cholesterol rate, smaller motor vehicle deaths, not everything but we're got a lot.

MD Flu Deaths - In the midst of it all. We don't mean to be sticklers for details but we had to comment on this Baltimore Sun story:

"State public health officials said Thursday that six more people have died in Maryland in the past four weeks of swine flu, bringing the number of deaths statewide since the pandemic began to 19. All six were adults with underlying health conditions. Three were from the Baltimore area, two were from Western Maryland and one was from Southern Maryland. No further details were provided by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene."

"Swine flu disproportionately affects those under age 65, unlike seasonal flu, which normally takes a toll on older people. So far, 36,000 children have been hospitalized and 540 have died nationwide." (WATCH)

As you can tell from the story below the numbers in Baltimore and Maryland alone exceed the nationally given number. The numbers that are reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) differ substantially from the numbers posted of the Department of Health websites. Even the numbers reported to the CDC aren't accurate and only give a hint to the directly observable numbers of the dead and dying.

Maryland's number of deaths from heart disease and cancer far and away dwarfs the current numbers of deaths from the flu and now the focus comes from the American Public Health Association that a contributing factor to both is increasing in this area in an alarming rate.

"No matter where you live in America, obesity threatens to unleash a wave of chronic disease in the next few years that will swamp the health-care system and add an economically crippling $344 billion a year to total health spending by 2018. This is the message of the 20th annual survey of the health of all 50 states, undertaken by the nonprofit group America's Health Rankings.

In their America's Health Ranking report Maryland is 21st this year; it was 22nd in 2008. Virginia is 21st this year, unchanged from 2008. As is North Carolina which again is 37th this year.

The District of Columbia (DC) is not included in the ranking of states, as it is a unique governmental entity and is considerably more urban than the states.

However when we compared the stats where they could be compared DC fared no better than its counterparts. Indeed in most respects the District of Columbia fared far worse and in too many cases substantially worse.

Oh, there is a Washington in the top eleven (11) it's just not the District of Columbia. We're not in top twenty (20) but we're also not in the bottom twenty (20) if that's any consolation to you. In some areas DC has exceeded the highest national average and in other cases finished in the top ten (10) or top twenty (20). What areas are those you ask?

They are: In the number of "Primary Care Physicians," "Income Disparity," "Heart Attacks," "Cholesterol Checks," less smokers "Prevalence of Smoking," Percentage of children with "Immunization Coverage," "Lack of Health Insurance," "Median Household Income," "Physical Activity," and from this activity keeps us in great shape because we use fewer "Poor Physical Health Days," we also excel in not having a "Prevalence of Obesity," which is reflected in our far less use of "Poor Mental Health Days," all this exercise and attendance to our health both physical and mental is reflected in "Preventable Hospitalizations," and finally if you asks us how we're doing we'll say "we're A-OK" which is reflected in our "Health Status" stats.

Unfortunately as good as these great numbers are we sucked at so much else that our truly remarkable number don't add up to enough to equal the care you'd receive at any of the top ten (10) recipients. We'll just have to be satisfied with high salaries - if we had high salaries or we could move to (in order of ranking): Vermont, Utah, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, Rhode Island, Washington state for the kind of health we can imagine in our dreams. The rankings is published jointly by United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.