Ky. parents strongly favor increasing school dropout age, a step that could make future high-school students healthier

A statewide poll has found that Kentucky parents overwhelmingly favor increasing the state’s school dropout age, and doing so might help future high-school students' health, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which sponsored the poll.   

After being told the legislature may raise the dropout age to 18 from 16, 85 percent of Kentucky parents said they favor the move, and 77 percent of parents said they strongly favored it.

Besides their homes, school is where children spend most of their time, and the overall health and well-being of students affect their ability to learn.  Healthy kids learn better and students’ academic achievement in turn affects their ability to be healthy and stay well in the future.

“People may not realize that education is a health issue, but research tells us that completing high school is directly related to our health status in later life,” said Dr. Susan Zepeda, President and CEO of the foundation. “Increasing the dropout age is one strategy aimed at improving the graduation rate in the state. We hope this polling data will encourage a deeper conversation among parents, education experts and policy makers to explore this and other strategies to help our children succeed at school and lead a more healthy life.”

The dropout-age question was part of the Kentucky Parent Survey, which provided a snapshot of parental views on a number of issues involving health care, school and home life. It surveyed parents, step-parents, grandparents, foster parents or other legal guardians of children in Kentucky.

The poll was conducted in July and August 2012 by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia.  More than 1,000 parents and guardians of children under 18 from throughout the state were interviewed by telephone, including landlines and cell phones.  The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Kentucky Health News is an independent service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

New survey shows dramatic increase in employer-sponsored health insurance rates

The average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance has increased 9 percent for family coverage and 8 percent for individual coverage since last year, a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust shows. "Both increases are the largest since 2005," Tony Pugh of McClatchy Newspapers writes, surpassing the national 2 percent increase in wages and 3.2 percent increase in inflation.

Since 2001, family coverage premiums have escalated 113 percent while workers' wages have only risen 34 percent and inflation – 27 percent, Pugh reports. Researchers are unclear if the increase in premiums is temporary or whether higher increases will continue. "We really don't know, and we won't know until next year," Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation told Pugh.

Employers pay on average about 72 percent toward family coverage and 82 percent for single coverage, Pugh reports, leaving workers paying 28 percent for family and 18 percent for single coverage. Of those surveyed, about 31 percent of covered workers were in high-deductible plans, a 10 percent increase from 2006.

Increasing costs in medical care is "the main culprit behind the rate increases," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans told Pugh. "Insurers' expectation of stronger economic recovery" and insurers' fears of increased costs from the 2010 Affordable Care Act may be driving higher premiums, Pugh reports.

Despite insurers' fears, an analysis by Kaiser and the federal government suggest that the 2010 Affordable Care Act accounts for only 1 to 2 percentage points of the increase. Only two measures, coverage of adult children to age 26 and no patient cost-sharing coverage on certain preventive medical services, were implemented thus far with the remaining provisions taking effect in 2014, Pugh reports. This month, insurers will be required to publicly disclose information about rate increases of 10 percent or more for review by state or federal officials to determine if the increase is warranted. (Read more)

Well-being index gives rankings for Kentucky's congressional districts and metropolitan areas; some are very bad

In keeping with its second-to-last state ranking in the 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which assessed people's physical and emotional health across the country, one of Kentucky's congressional districts and its major metropolitan area have also ranked low.

Of 436 congressional districts nationwide, Kentucky's 5th District ranked 435th overall, and was dead last in the emotional-health and physical-health categories. The other districts' rankings were: 1st, 383rd; 2nd, 404th; 3rd, 312th; 4th, 415th and the 6th, 388th. Here's a table with breakouts and the 2009 rankings:

Of the 188 metropolitan areas assessed, Louisville ranked 170th, not much different from its 151st ranking in 2009. Lexington ranked 115th, way down from 15th. Among metro areas centered in other states, Cincinnati was 123rd; Clarksville, Tenn., was 162nd; Evansville was 172nd; and Huntington was 188th, dead last in the nation. It has scored poorly on several other health measurements.



The well-being index assessed respondents on their emotional health, physical health, life evaluation, work environment, healthy behaviors and basic access. Respondents answered a large spectrum of questions that pertained to their life now and how they expect it to be in five years. In the emotional-health category, for example, they were asked about how often they laugh, if they were treated with respect and if they experienced sadness, anger or depression. In the work-environment category, people were asked about how they are treated by their supervisor, if they are able to use their strengths while at work and if they're satisfied with their job.

Compared to the rest of the country, Kentucky as a whole ranked 49th, surpassing only West Virginia. Hawaii had the highest well-being index in the country.

It bears noting that the rankings are based on very narrow margins of difference, with many states' scores just a few tenths of 1 percentage point apart. While Kentucky's overall well-being index was 61.9 out of a possible 100 points, Hawaii, which ranked first in the country, had a score of 71. The 2010 score for the nation was 66.8. West Virginia's score was 61.7 points. Because the scores were so close together, precise rankings are uncertain. The ranges for congressional districts and cities are greater, but the error margins are larger.

The survey was based on random-digit dial telephone interviews with 352,840 adult Americans living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. There were 5,881 Kentuckians who participated in the study. Of those, 1,046 live in the 5th Congressional District and 1,632 live in the Louisville area, which includes Jefferson County and the Indiana border. Interviews were conducted every day from January to December 2010.

The margin of sampling error for most states is plus or minus 1 to 2 percent, but is as high as plus or minus 4 percent for the smallest states. For results based on the total sample size, "one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1 percentage point," says Elizabeth Mendes of Gallup.