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It's not the people in those states, its the states themselves... always at the bottom of education, health care, median income, and environmental protection. Willing to be turned into a dirt-poor free-trade zone. Always at the top of religiosity, meth use, obesity, and anti-gubmint politicians who somehow still get big handouts from daddy-gubmint. A toxic brew, tolerated and even advocated by a majority of it's often fat, toothless, ignorant stereotypes... er, I mean citizens!

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For the fifth consecutive year, Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country. According to a Gallup and Healthways poll, 28.8 percent of adult Texans are without healthcare insurance in 2012 and is the highest for any state since this poll started in January 2008. Texas is now 4.8 points away from the state with the second-highest uninsured rate in the country, Louisiana (24 percent), the largest difference ever. Nevada, California and Florida make up the rest of the five worst states.

Massachusetts still has the lowest uninsured rate in the US at 4.5 percent. Vermont (9.2 percent), Delaware, Connecticut and Hawaii make up the rest of the five best. http://www.healthnewsobserver.com/articles/detail/the-best-and-worst-s
tates-for-adult-health-insurance-exposed]

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in terms of the level of their overall health and health care, determined by 23 objective measurements.

The annual America’s Health Rankings® report is funded by the United Health Foundation, a non-profit organization, and is prepared by a Scientific Advisory Committee of the United Health Foundation, in concert with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and Partnership for Prevention, commissioned the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In the America’s Health Rankings® a panel of leading public health scholars, evaluates and grades the overall health of each state based on objective data measuring 23 different factors that indicate both health “determinants” (actions or conditions that affect the future health of the population) and health “outcomes” in each state.

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Mississippi is the most religious U.S. state, and is one of eight states where Gallup classifies at least half of the residents as "very religious." At the other end of the spectrum, Vermont and New Hampshire are the least religious states, and are two of the five states -- along with Maine, Massachusetts, and Alaska -- where less than 30% of all residents are very religious. http://www.gallup.com/poll/153479/Mississippi-Religious-State.aspx#1]

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Regionally, people living in states in the Northeast and upper Midwest are the most likely to say they visited the dentist in the past 12 months. Southern states, on the other hand, have the lowest percentages of people who say they visited the dentist. The nine states with the lowest incidence of dentist visits are in the South. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/25/states-dental-care_n_978378.h
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One of the major contributing factors to this trend has to do with access to health insurance. In the 10 states where the most people had visited a dentist in the past year, residents were -- on average -- more than 15 percent more likely to have health insurance that in the states that fell to the bottom of the poll.

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