Women's Health: State Rankings

6 States Flunk, 8 States Barely Pass; Low Grade for Nation

WebMD Health News

May 7, 2004 -- An American woman's health may hang on where she lives.

Some states do very little for women's health, while some do a barely adequate job, according to a state-by-state analysis from the National Women's Law Center and Oregon Health & Science University.

"The outlook for women's health is grim and nowhere near approaching the nation's goals for 2010 set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services," Michelle Berlin, MD, MPH, of OHSU says in a news release. "Failing to meet these goals undermines not only the health and well-being of women, but the well-being of our country as well."

The rankings are based on whether states have adopted 67 "key women's health policies." The only one of these met by all the states is Medicaid coverage for breast and cervical cancer. Only three states -- New York, California, and Rhode Island -- met more than half of these policy goals. Idaho, South Dakota, and Mississippi met the fewest.

State-by-State Rankings on Women's Health

Here are the state-by-state rankings, in rank order:

Minnesota
Massachusetts
Vermont
Connecticut
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Colorado
Utah
Maine
Washington
Rhode Island
Arizona
Iowa
North Dakota
Maryland
Oregon
Montana
New Jersey
Nebraska
California
Florida
Kansas
Wisconsin
Delaware
Alaska
Virginia
South Dakota
Wyoming
New York
Idaho
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Nevada
Georgia
Missouri
Ohio
New Mexico
North Carolina
Illinois
South Carolina
Indiana
Tennessee
Kentucky
District of Columbia
Alabama
Texas
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi

Major components of the rankings are based on:

Access to health insurance. Nationwide, 18% of women are uninsured. This ranges from 8% in Minnesota to a whopping 28% (more than one in four women) in Texas.
Requiring insurance to pay for tests such as mammograms, pap smears, and colorectal cancer screening.
Access to reproductive services such as contraception, emergency contraception, and abortion.
Economic security issues such as minimum wage, paid family leave, and child support.

"F" grades on the groups' national report card goes to six states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas.

"Satisfactory minus" grades -- meaning not quite satisfactory but not unsatisfactory -- go to eight states: Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Colorado, and Utah.

All other states get an "unsatisfactory" rating.

The report shows that while many states made gains in some areas, they offset these gains by weakening women's health in other areas.

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