President Obama Announces Offshore Drilling Ban, This Week In Washington, State Health Report Card Shows Need For Improvement

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Heard On Central Time

A new report from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute gives Wisconsin a grade of B- for overall health, but no better than a C for Wisconsinites without a high school education, for African-Americans, and for Native Americans. We talk to an expert from the Population Health Institute about the grade and what he says Wisconsin needs to improve. We also get an update on national politics with Harry Enten, including a growing partisan divide over Russia. We talk to an energy editor about President Obama’s new ban on offshore oil drilling for big parts of the Arctic and Atlantic Seaboard.

Featured in this Show

  • President Obama Announces Ban On Offshore Drilling In Arctic And Atlantic Seaboard

    On Tuesday President Barack Obama announced what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along big areas of the Arctic and Atlantic Seaboard. The president used a law from the 1950’s to make this action. He said the law gives him the authority to act unilaterally. Pundits say President Obama’s declaration of a permanent drilling ban is unprecedented. We talk to an energy editor about this executive action and how it could affect the future of energy in the United States.

  • This Week In Washington – December 21, 2016

    Harry Enten, senior political writer and analyst for FiveThirtyEight, joins Central Time for our weekly look at the most pressing issues in national politics–including a growing partisan divide over Russia, and how the Midwest was lost (by Democrats).

  • State Health Report Card Shows Wide Disparities In Wisconsin

    According to the 2016 Health of Wisconsin Report Card, Wisconsin infants, children, and adults scored a B- for their overall health. But with a D for a health disparity grade, the report also showed wide gaps between the most healthy and least healthy members of the state.

  • New State Health Report Card Shows Wide Disparities In Wisconsin

    A new health report shows a lot of room for improvement in Wisconsin, especially for American minority groups and people without a college education.

    Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute gave the state a B- on the 2016 health report card. It’s a passing grade for the overall population, but a closer look at the numbers show health inequalities across the state, particularly among African-Americans, Native Americans and those who have a high school diploma or less.

    The first report card was released in 2007 and subsequent reports have been issued every three years. Wisconsin’s grade for overall health has remained at a B- since 2007. However, the health disparities grade has changed from a C- in 2010 to a D in 2013 and 2016.

    With the exception of working-age adults, Wisconsin’s death rates have fallen for every age group, according to the report.

    The report card grades health in two ways: length of life, which mostly considers mortality rates; and quality of life, which was measured using Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicators that asks people how many days in the past month they have felt either physically or mentally unhealthy.

    Dr. David Kindig, a professor emeritus at at the institute and founder of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Population Health Improvement, called the results discouraging considering how many resources are poured into public health care, and said Wisconsin is being outpaced by comparable states.

    A decade ago, Kindig said Wisconsin was ranked as high as the sixth healthiest state in the nation, according to another national report card that’s issued annually. Last year, Wisconsin ranked 24th and moved up four spots this year to 20th.

    “We measure ourselves in comparison to all the other states, and many other states are improving better and faster than us,” Kindig said. “We’re down below where we would like to be, below Minnesota and North Dakota and some of the places we emulate and certainly think we should be doing as well as.”

    While the state as a whole scored slightly above average, some groups received failing grades.

    African-Americans and Native Americans had significantly lower scores on nearly every measure. Additionally, those with a high school education or less scored nearly as bad and also received an F.

    “Unfortunately, that’s nothing new,” said Kindig. “It’s been that way for a long time. But we find for almost every measure for both the length of life and the quality of life really unacceptable low grades for Native American and African-American citizens.”

    Kindig said it’s going to take a multidimensional approach to reverse course on state health outcomes. The institute’s model stresses four critical areas for improving health, they include clinical care, health behaviors, social and economic factors, and the physical environment.

    There is no silver bullet, said Kindig. But as a former pediatrician, he’s seen the research that shows how critical the first 1,000 days of life are in laying down a pathway towards a happy and healthy life. Early childhood development would be a good place to invest in health care resources, he said.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Amanda Magnus Producer
  • Rob Ferrett Producer
  • Haleema Shah Producer
  • Nick Juliano Guest
  • Harry Enten Guest
  • Dr. David Kindig Guest

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