Within the Webinar from 2018, a new release on state report highlights “what health equity is and why it matters.” We know that where you live affects your health, and for the past nine years (since 2018), the Health Rankings have helped show this. The newest feature showed that location along with race and ethnicity affects your health. Differences in health outcomes and health factors now included all three demographics on the state level. They also had a feature that helped communities identify methods to create opportunity and health for all.
The online seminar further explains, “what do we mean by health equity.” They explain it as everyone having a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. I took a minute to compare two counties in Pennsylvania when it comes to health opportunities. (Comparing counties is also a new feature in the 2018 release.) I was interested in Montgomery County and Delaware County, one of which has a county health department and one which does not (Montgomery County DOES have a county health department.) Some factors I was interested in were the ratio of providers (PCPs = 730:1 in Montgomery