The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released two reports that compare health issues between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of the U.S.  In Potentially Excess Deaths from the Five Leading Causes of Death, researchers found that the gap in the percentages of preventable deaths between rural and urban counties widened over the eight-year study period for cancer, heart disease, and chronic lower respiratory disease, remained relatively stable for stroke, and decreased for unintentional injuries.  A study on Lung Cancer Incidence found that rates decreased in both urban and rural areas during the ten year period from 2007-2016, but the smallest decrease occurred among females living in nonmetropolitan counties.  Click here to access the report.

Large, brand-name drugmakers could lose $1 trillion in sales and remain profitable enough to maintain their current investments in research and development, according to a report released last week by West Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Sean Dickson, director of health policy at the West Health Policy Center and the lead author of the analysis, said the findings suggest drug pricing regulations would not substantially harm the industry. (Source: Healthcare Finance News, 11/14)

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) released Industrial Make-Up of the Appalachian Region, a new report examining employment and earnings across the Region. Drawing on data from 15 industry sectors, the report catalogs how the Region’s industrial make-up and earnings compare to that of the country as a whole. The report primarily focuses on the period from 2002–2017 — the years immediately before, during, and after the Great Recession – and finds that employment growth varies across the Region. Overall, while post-Recession employment growth has been positive in Appalachia, it lags behind the growth that was experienced by the country as a whole. The report also finds an overall employment shift across the Region towards professional & technical services; health & social services; and tourism-related jobs.

Among the Report’s key findings: from 2012 to 2017, employment across all industries in Appalachia grew 4.7 percent. While growth was positive, employment nationwide grew 9.6 percent during the same time period. From 2012 to 2017, the fastest growth in employment occurred in Appalachia’s South Central and Southern subregions, at 6.6 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively. In 2017, the five industries with the largest employment shares in the Region were professional & technical services (12.1 percent), health and social services (11.6 percent), retail and trade (11.1 percent); state and local government (11.1 percent); and manufacturing (10 percent). In 2017, 10 percent of Appalachia’s total employment was in the manufacturing industry, a larger share than the country as a whole (6.8 percent).

Mental Health America has released their state by state report on mental health care. Pennsylvania is ranked number one in the nation in State of Mental Health in America. The access measures include access to insurance, access to treatment, quality and cost of insurance, access to special education, and workforce availability. A high access ranking indicates that a state provides relatively more access to insurance and mental health treatment.

With November being National Diabetes Awareness Month and Americans collectively spending nearly $200 billion per year on obesity-related health costs, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019’s Fattest States in America as well as accompanying videos, along with interesting stats about diabetes in its Facts & Statistics infographic.

To determine which states contribute the most to America’s overweight and obesity problem, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 29 key metrics. They range from share of overweight and obese population to sugary-beverage consumption among adolescents to obesity-related health care costs.

Young adults aged 18-29 years old who live in rural areas and self-report injection drug use are at risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.  Researchers in New Mexico identified gaps in knowledge about risk and prevention, screening, treatment, and reinfection as a source of this risk and highlight the importance of risk reduction counseling by frontline public health providers.  The study was published earlier this year and is now available in the library of the National Institutes of Health.  Click here for the full report.

A report from the RAND Corporation “describes a basic, multi-level framework for mapping the system of factors and mechanisms that most influence positive and negative outcomes in rural communities.”  Researchers sought to go beyond data and statistics on national trends and investigate variables at the local level.  The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization researching solutions to public policy challenges.

The opportunity to prosper begins with preventive health care when children are young. A healthy start includes immunizations, screenings, regular dental care, well-child visits and access to nutritious food.  However, 124,000 Pennsylvania children do not have health insurance, and children under six are the most likely to be without coverage according to our newest report, “State of Children’s Health Care in Pennsylvania: Powering Up Healthy Kids.”

While Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate falls below the national average, it remains stagnant at 4.4 percent, with Pennsylvania ranking in the middle of the pack at 24th for the percentage of uninsured children.

According to a new report released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, the number of uninsured children increased nationally by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, reversing a long-standing positive trend.

No child should be without health care insurance and our report sets a clear agenda to strengthen both access and coverage benefits in health care for the Commonwealth’s children.