As you have likely heard, this December, the United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings® report will turn 25. This represents an important milestone: a quarter century of dedicated commitment to improved national health.
To honor this occasion, the United Health Foundation asked notable leaders from the public health, legislative, academic, business, technology and consumer arenas to provide us with their thoughts and reflections on important achievements and challenges in American health in the past 25 years, as well as their aspirations and predictions for the next 25 years.
We’ll have a special section of the website dedicated to sharing these luminaries’ written and video perspectives. It will launch in conjunction with the Dec. 10 release of the annual report, but in the meantime, we wanted to share with you some snippets.
Here are a couple thoughts on what’s changed—and what hasn’t—in the past 25 years:
“No, 25 years ago we didn’t think the earth was flat or that diseases were transmitted via an ill-defined miasma. But a lot was different, and many changes in health nationally and for individual states have been positive. Foremost, longevity has significantly increased. The burden of many chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular, but also some cancers and other conditions, has decreased, in some cases markedly through a combination of behavioral changes and improved medical care. The most striking behavioral change in our collective health risks has been a continued dramatic decline in adult tobacco use, now below 20 percent on average.” —Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MBA, MA, Distinguished Professor, Schools of Public Health and Medicine, UCLA
“Twenty-five years is a generation – a time period in which many changes can occur. In America, we have seen a number of improvements in health status during the past generation….But these gains are not equally shared. Tremendous variation exists in health status in the US based on where someone lives, their sex, and their ethnicity. A white American living in Connecticut, having made it to age 65, can expect to live another 20 years. A black American living in Iowa can expect to live only another 7 years after age 65. Why do we see such a gap? The answer lies in looking upstream to assess the major causes of death and disease. Tobacco use, poor diet and physical inactivity are the leading causes of poor health in the US and these vary across the US based on education, work setting and income of the population, and policy, community and environmental factors.” —Anna Schenck, Associate Dean for Practice, North Carolina Institute for Public Health and the Public Health Leadership Program at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Of course, these leaders didn’t just limit themselves to defining American’s health in the past quarter century. They looked forward too:
“We’re not there yet, so we still need courage, innovative thinking—and action. Right now we need to find ways to increase the number of physicians and healthcare professionals who will become primary care providers in community health centers, and other community oriented healthcare facilities. We are facing a dramatic increase in the number of elderly Americans who will need intensive medical services; and an increase in the numbers of Americans from historically underserved communities – African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans. The history of the community health center movement shows that primary care providers who have ties to the community are our most powerful resource when it comes to addressing the social determinants of health and providing effective medical care. Our goal is to train the next generation of primary care providers, and bring these physicians and healthcare professionals, with all their talent and commitment, back to their communities, and to other communities in need.” —Dr. Esther R. Dyer, President and CEO of National Medical Fellowships
We hope you’re as eager as we are to see the full suite of videos and written statements from these and other thought leaders. Keep visiting the website after December too—we will update it throughout our 25th anniversary year.
Blog Author
Kate Rubin
Kate Rubin is vice president of Social Responsibility for UnitedHealth Group and president of the United Health Foundation.
With corporate philanthropy totaling nearly $60 million in 2011 and initiatives targeting chronic diseases around the globe, UnitedHealth Group and its employees work to maximize efforts and opportunities, including foundations, volunteerism, community involvement and commitment to the environment, to make a positive impact on people’s health and their communities.
Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Ms. Rubin served nine years as president of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA), the largest technology trade organization in the state. Ms. Rubin was a business unit executive with IBM where she led a $100 million, 100 person technology group and managed multiple entrepreneurial start-up operations in marketing, sales, service and systems integration across a broad set of industries in many geographies.
Ms. Rubin serves on the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs Advisory Board, and the State of Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Board.
Ms. Rubin holds a B.B.A. in marketing and industrial relations from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in Human Resource Development from the University of Minnesota.