Louisiana Health Insurance
Louisiana’s health status
Louisiana’s health status is not good. In fact, it’s the worst in the country. Louisiana comes in at the last place in America’s Health Rankings of 2008, a list put together by the United Health Foundation that ranks healthiness within the US sates. Louisiana was 49th last year, but it dropped to the last spot in 2008. This is not good news for the residents of Louisiana. Louisiana has been the worst state when it comes to health for a while now, being in the bottom spot 15 of the past 18 years (the remaining three years it was ranked as second-worst). Health Care in the state needs to be reformed and regrouped so it’s better, more accessible and adequate for the population.
Public funding in Louisiana is not one of the problems, as they are in the top 15 states with most public funding in the country (public health funding is $95 per person in 2008). Despite a strong funding, with one of the country’s worst poverty percentages in the nation, the amount of the population that lacks Health Insurance in the state is extremely high, at 20.2%. The state has also the third highest rate of preventable hospitalizations (112 per 1,000 enrollees), violent crime (730 offenses per 100,000 people), obesity (30.7% of the people in Louisiana is Obese), and Children living in poverty (with 22.7% of persons under age 18 living in poverty). Also, in the past year, the high school graduation rate decreased from 69.4 percent to 63.9 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years. This shows that a lot of Louisiana health issues are also social issues, and ultimately the health care system is not only poor and inadequate, but also inaccessible to a big part of the population.
Health outcomes also need to be watched and improved, as the state has also some of the worst rates in the nation for cardiovascular related deaths (349.2 per 100,000 population), cancer-related deaths (the second worst percentage in the country), and alarmingly high infant mortality rate, with 10.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births. The premature death rate is alarming as well, the second worst in the nation, with 11,125 years lost per 100,000 people. Despite an acceptable number of primary care physicians, it seems that death prevention doesn’t work at its best in Louisiana, which indicates that the system needs to be improved, because it’s not working as it should.
Louisiana has serious issues, that drag and lower their overall healthiness and make the state the worst state when it comes to health. With so many factors to improve, it’s going to be a hard and long road for Louisiana residents to improve their health system and overall healthiness. The recent increase in public health fund might help, but it’s not enough. Deep changes to the system and policies need to be made.
Louisiana health insurance information
About 80% of the citizens in Louisiana have Health Insurance. Even though the state has been increasing public health funding, accessibility is a big problem for Louisiana residents, and they have some of the highest percentages of residents that lack Health Insurance (20.2% this year, up 0.4% from 2007). Accessibility is a key factor to improve the health system, a bring it up from the bottom of the nation’s rankings. The percentage of employers offering health insurance to employees is also very low in this state, standing at 52.6%, but it seems to be going up. 73% of workers take advantage of the Health Insurance plans offered by their employers, a lower percentage than five years ago.
With a good rate of primary care physicians for the population (119.4 physicians per 100,000 population), Louisiana has a strong potential to offer better health care, but they need to reach to the people that need it the most first. This percentage of population that could get medical care when needed is still low (82.3%). The patients served by FQHCs as a percent of population under 200% FPL is also very low, and it stands at 7.7%.
If coverage has been denied for you, there are still some options you can check:
Best health plans in Louisiana
The prestigious US News ranks yearly the best Health Plans in the country, polling and evaluating consumer assessment, prevention, and treatment offered by all plans. They gather information and rank the results, nation-wide and state-wide, showing on their results the best plans available for Louisiana as well. The Rankings reflect results of consumer surveys and success in preventing and treating illness compared with average health plan.
Not only they rank Commercial Plans, they also rank Medicare or Medicaid plans, covering and evaluating as many plans as possible. If you want to browse their list of best-of, please go to the US News Health Plans Search site.
Get involved
If you are concerned about Louisiana’s health care issues and want to speak out, your safest bet is to contact your federal official, either via phone or fax. Postal Mail is not recommended, since it takes too long, and e-mail might not be seen. Also, make sure you communicate with the right Member of the Senate and/or Congress.
If you want more guidance and tips on how to contact and communicate with your representatives, there are various sites on the internet that can help on how to contact your elected officials.
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| Contact the White House PHONE: toll free 1-800-671-7887 (ask for the Comment Line) FAX: 1 202-456-2461 State officials:
Official Louisiana health insurance information
| Recent Louisiana health insurance newsHealth Insurance is always a hot topic for discussion, since it involves the citizens of Louisiana and their welfare. Here are some of the latest news and updates on the current issues and news related to Health and Health Insurance for Louisiana: |
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