For Immediate Release: June 5, 2007

Contact: 415/955-6120

California Think Tank Releases State Rankings on Health Ownership

Utah Comes Out on Top, New York Finishes Last

SAN FRANCISCO – Americans lack the basic freedom to make their own health care decisions according to the U.S. Index of Health Ownership, a new report released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free-market think tank. The Index is the first effort to measure the degree to which individuals, be they patients, health professionals, entrepreneurs, or taxpayers, “own” the health care in their states.

“The lack of health ownership is a real problem,” said John R. Graham, director of Health Care Studies at PRI and author of the new Index. “Almost half of the country’s health care spending is in the hands of the government, instead of patients themselves. The other half is governed by regulations inflicted upon doctors, insurance companies and patients.”

State Ranking Results

The Index uses 24 variables to quantify how state laws and regulations affect the liberty of citizens involved in state government health plans (primarily Medicaid), the private health-insurance market, and the provision of medical services. It also assesses the effect of medical tort on people’s freedom to engage health services.

Utah, Nebraska, Delaware, North Dakota, and Alabama finished in the top five, as the states that allow their citizens the highest degree of health ownership. Utah leads the pack, primarily because of a lightly regulated private insurance market. Also, the state’s regulatory environment for providers favors competition.

New York, Vermont, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Maine rounded out the bottom five, as the states in which the government has taken the most undue control of health care from its citizens. New York suffers from government health-care programs that are out of control, a grossly overregulated private-insurance market, and almost completely uncompetitive provider markets.

A full listing of all 50 states and their rankings is contained in the Index.

“The Index will give concerned citizens a good basis to demand from their politicians market-oriented reforms that will result in more health ownership for them and their children, and freedom from government control of their health choices,” said Mr. Graham.

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About PRI
For 27 years, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has championed freedom, opportunity, and individual responsibility through free-market policy solutions. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. For more information please visit our web site at http://www.pacificresearch.org/