Ohio Health Insurance

State Rankings

Ohio has seen a steady decline in its overall health in the past twenty years. From its peak of 25th in the early 1990s, Ohio healthcare has now slipped all the way to 36th. Poor statistics in several important healthcare determinant categories are to blame. Ohio ranks in the bottom ten of all states in its smoking rate (45th), infectious disease (40th), air pollution (48th), and preventable hospitalizations (41st). Even for those unfamiliar with state healthcare statistics, it is plainly clear that doing poorly in those four categories will not help overall health in a state. The smoking rate has actually increased in Ohio since 2010 after a general trend of decline in past years. Likewise, obesity is on the rise in Ohio, although the rate has remained stagnant in recent years, which is good news. Healthcare in Ohio does have some bright spots, however. Ohio has a low rate of occupational fatalities and high rates of child immunization coverage and primary care physicians, in addition to a solid high school graduation rate. Unfortunately, those statistics hardly make up for the overall bad health of Ohio residents.

Ohio Healthcare

Ohio is third from last in public health funding, managing a meager $45 dollars per person in 2011. Fortunately, this has not translated into high numbers of uninsured residents. According to the Kaiser Foundation, only 14% of Ohio residents are uninsured, which is high, but still below the national average of 16%. Ohio does have a higher proportion of residents on Medicare, which may be a result of its lower-than-average household incomes. If Ohio is to reverse its trend of poor overall health, it needs to improve some of its important healthcare statistics quickly, starting with public health funding. Luckily, Ohio residents still have a wide range of healthcare plans that are rated highly by the NCQA: