Here's to our health: Collin County ranks high on health study

Collin County has again been named one of the state's healthiest counties in the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute's yearly County Health Rankings.

The county ranked number one in the report's "Health Factors" category, which includes health behaviors, availability of care and social and economic factors. The county ranked second in the "Health Outcomes" category, which ranks counties by the lowest rate of premature deaths and lowest number of residents who are in poor health.

The study used traditionally health-related factors, such as the number of residents who die before the age of 75, the number of residents who smoke and drink heavily, access to healthy foods and obesity rates, in ranking the counties. It also used less traditional health indicators, such as high school graduation rates, income levels and unemployment.

Candy Blair of the Collin County Health Services Department said the high level of access to health care in the area was key to its high ranking. Blair points to the county's three-share program, which allows indigent patients to split the cost of health services among themselves, the county and a third-party health care provider, as a key example of the county's efforts to increase accessibility to health care in the county.

The affluence of Collin County is also a key part of health care availability, Blair said, having good employers with health insurance plans and competitive pay makes it easier for the county's residents to see doctors, improving physical health outcomes. Inversely, the health of residents can attract new economic development, she said.

"Employers are looking at the same thing," Blair said. "What do you have to offer me? Do you have a strong, educated workforce? How healthy is the county?"

In fact, social and economic factors account for 40 of the institute's Health Factors model. That means neighborhood safety, parks and trails and healthy school lunch menus are of more importance when it comes to preventing illness than quality of and access to medical care.

"If you're having a heart attack, you definitely want the best doctor, you want insurance and you want to be as close as you can be to that hospital, but if you want to prevent a heart attack, you need to have a good education, a good job and a [healthy community environment]," said Julie Willems Van Dijk, an associate scientist with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. "If you have all those things you are less likely to be that person in the emergency room having the heart attack."

The rating comes amid a somewhat uncertain future for Collin County's indigent health services program, the cost of which has increased as health care costs continue to soar. More residents are expected to seek care through the program this year if the Legislature approves a proposed 29 percent cut to the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Blair said the county hopes to preserve its success with Project Access, a program that will offer health care providers office space and an annual sum of $485,000 to treat indigent patients without billing them. The new system is intended to reduce strain on hospitals, which often never receive payment for giving indigent patients the care normally provided by doctors.

"Innovative ways like that to take care of patients ... that's what we're going to need," Blair said.

Last year, Collin County ranked No. 2 in Health Factors and No. 1 in health outcomes. Other top-ranking North Texas counties this year include Denton and Rockwall, who respectively ranked third in Health Outcomes and sixth in Health Factors.

The only area in which Collin County's Health Factors fell behind the rest of the state was the Physical Environment metric, which showed the county had 18 ozone pollution days, exceeding the state average of 10.

"The fact is we can always be working on improving our health, and for most communities, they're not both at the top of the national benchmark and at the top of their state, and there are areas in which they can certainly show better performance," Van Dijk said.

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