Change in Bankruptcy and Health Outcomes

Rotated Factor Matrixa
	Factor
	1  (52% of Variance)	2 (21% of Variance)
Infant Mortality 2007 Deaths/1000	.915	.157
Life Expectancy	-.824	-.473
% Low Birthweight Babies	.700	.341
Groups per million	.612
% change in bankruptcy	-.441
Percent Uninsured in Demographic Group for All Income Levels		.979
Percent under age 65 in 200% of Poverty	.372	.753
Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring.  Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.a
a. Rotation converged in 3 iterations.

I've added the change in bankruptcy rates to the factor analysis for health and hate groups.  I had to remove income from the analysis so the model would converge.  The factor structure did not change radically otherwise.  The % change in bankruptcy loaded weakly and negatively on the factor with health outcomes and hate groups.  Of all the factors entered, life expectancy correlated most strongly with the % change in bankruptcy followed by infant mortality. 

The graph for life expectancy suggests a positive relationship with the change in bankruptcy.  The increased change in bankruptcy could be due to more permissive laws in granting bankruptcy protection from creditors as can be seen in the video below.  These states may tend to have better quality of life characteristics than those who do not.  For example, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy and an increase in bankruptcies of 129% (and zero hate groups).  As can be seen in the above graph, this relationship is far from perfect accounting for only 15.2% of the variability,

There is also a significant negative correlation with infant mortality and change in bankruptcy accounting for 13.4% of the variance.  The District of Columbia is an outlier with a rate of 13.1 deaths per 1,000 live births but an increase of 26% of bankruptcies (DC also has the highest rate of hate groups)/  Removing DC gives a slightly stronger relationship with 14.9% of the variability accounted.

**Related Posts**

A Wave of Hate Groups in California? No in Washington, DC

 

How do the States Stack Up on Infant Mortality? (Cross Post with PUSH)

 

Correlation with the Number of Hate Groups per Million, Poor Health Suggests More Hate

Personal and Medical Bankruptcies: A Follow Up

 

Income and Life Expectancy. What does it Tell Us About US?

How does Pennsylvania Measure Up on Infant Mortality?

Infant Mortality vs. Income for Certain States & Countries in 2006

The Gapminder Institute has come out with an online interactive graphic showing the United States' individual states and all of the other nations of the world.  I created the graph at the left to show the relationship between per capita income and infant mortality for the year 2006.  The graph was created by scanning the printout in greyscale. 

Pennsylvania is labeled above the clear dot near the second zero for 2006.  It had a rate of 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births and an income of $39,648.  The other state and country names are near the dots they represent.  Larger dots mean larger populations. 

You can see the graph in color at the link below and interact with it by selecting other states and countries with your mouse arrow key.  There is a menu at the right where you can change the scales on the graphs.  I know the jpg of the graph above may be hard to follow for some.  The interactive version of it should be easier.

www.bit.ly/O9Amll


The richest countries in the world are highlighted, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg respectively (the US ranked 8th overall) and also respective mortality rates of 3 and 4.  Iceland and Singapore were tied with the lowest rates at 2.  Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Japan and other western European countries had lower incomes as well as lower infant mortality rates than Pennsylvania.

Mississippi had the highest infant mortality rate (11/1,000 births) and the lowest income in the US ($27,566) and Gov. Barbour said Ms was the safest state to be an unborn child (see clip below about our political priorities but not Eastwood's empty chair).  It was richer than Russia but was close to it in infant deaths (Russia had 14/1,000 births).  Surprisingly Utah had the lowest mortality rate at 4.5 but has a lower income at $36,311 which is close to Canada.  Delaware had a high mortality rate at 9 and the highest income of the states at $66,247.  

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**Related Posts**

Bob Mason's Letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

Income and Life Expectancy. What does it Tell Us About US?

 

Overall Health System Performance - The Commonwealth Fund

 

Check out this great MSN video: How America got into birth control mess

Bob Mason's Letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Healthcare for All Pa vice President Bob Mason had a Letter to the editor posted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday, June 15 in response to an article linked to in the repost below. 

As you advocated in the editorial "Dropping the Baby:  DPW is Wrong to Cut Newborns' Hospital Care"  (June 8), valuing life should include adequate funding for newborns' hospital
care under Medicaid, which pays for almost half of all births in
Pennsylvania.  Even at a time of austerity, some sacrifices are just
too great.

Absent financial support for obstetrical services, hard pressed rural
hospitals might be forced to eliminate them, further decreasing the
availability of medical care for pregnant women in many counties
in the Commonwealth. This gap should also be viewed in the context of
the United States' ranking 31st in infant mortality.

Fortunately, there is a humane and affordable solution.  Pennsylvania
has a single payer plan, the Family and Business Health Security Act (SB 400/HB 1660),
which builds on the advances of the federal Affordable Care Act and
would fund comprehensive health care for all Pennsylvanians through
publicly financed, privately delivered services.  It would save
billions of dollars for taxpayers, businesses, and government through
a significant reduction in the overhead of the current health
insurance industry ( as much as 30%).  The plan also
includes mechanisms to address the gap in health care in
Pennsylvania's rural areas.

Let's welcome the newest Pennsylvanians with the care all human beings
should receive.  (More information is available at
www.healthcare4allpa.org.)

--
Bob Mason
Vice President
Health Care 4 All PA

**Related Post**

Theresa Chalich's Letter to the Editor on Single Payer 

 

Since August, 88,000 Pennsylvania children have lost Medicaid benefits - Philly.com

 

The Pennsylvania Medicaid Budgetary Squeeze