EDITORIAL: Duval must continue to tackle health issues

Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)

April 09-- Apr. 9--Yes, wealth and health do go together -- and we have yet more proof that's the case.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin recently released a study ranking the health of every county in every state.

It was no surprise that St. Johns County and other wealthy counties like Collier ranked high in Florida; meanwhile, rural counties like Bradford, Union and Putnam ranked extremely low.

Here were the health rankings for area counties among Florida's 67 counties:

--St. Johns: No. 1.

--Clay: No. 16.

--Nassau: No. 36.

--Duval: No. 44.

--Baker: No. 50.

Here are a few comparisons:

--Proportion in fair or poor health: 11 percent in St. Johns, 18 percent in Duval.

--Adult smoking: 13 percent in St. Johns, 18 percent in Duval.

--Adult obesity: 23 percent in St. Johns, 31 percent in Duval.

--Alcohol-impaired driving deaths: 21 percent in St. Johns, 30 percent in Duval.

--Children in poverty: 9 percent in St. Johns, 23 percent in Duval.

--Sexually transmitted infections: 264 per 100,000 people for St. Johns, 727 for Duval. That's a shocking disparity made worse by the number of African-Americans in Duval living with HIV -- a total of 1 in 56 black residents have it, compared to 1 in 401 Duval whites.

One statistic that the Duval County Health Department still hasn't been able to explain is why suicides have ranged from about 12 to 17 per 100,000 deaths since 2007. For example, the Duval suicide rate was 12.8 in 2014 -- but jumped to 17.4 just one year later.

Why?

And why is Duval's suicide rate almost always higher than the state average?

Nationally suicide is just one of three leading causes of death that are increasing, along with Alzheimer's and drug overdoses.

Shopping for health care

State law requires hospitals to post their prices online, but good luck figuring them out thanks to the abbreviations, codes and different prices, according to Florida Trend.

The prices are also collected on Florida Health Finder, a state website.

State Rep. Paul Renner has introduced the Patient Savings Act, which is designed to increase bargain shopping for health care. Renner's bill would require insurance companies to share savings with consumers, though the program would be voluntary for insurers.

Renner's bill is a worthwhile one given that more than 1 in 5 Americans have high-deductible health plans that have been increasing; last year, for example, the average deductible nationally was $1,350 (compared to $433 in 2008). What makes things even worse is that health premiums are increasing faster than wages.

The idea that consumers can shop for health care was described as "silly" by R. Paul Duncan, a University of Florida senior associate dean.

In a Florida Trend article, Duncan declared that given America's highly complex health care payment system, consumers would be caught up in a "wild goose chase" trying to find relevant information on prices.

True, shopping the health care marketplace could never be similar to buying a car -- but there should be an easier way for Americans to find out why their health care costs what it does.

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