Even with health insurance, healthcare can cost an arm and a leg. It’s why we’ve again partnered with our friends at GOOD – which is the magazine and website for people who want “to do good” — to take a look at some key statistics. The infographic below, which draws on government data to examine geographies and income and education levels between 1997 and 2006, shows a growing number of Americans avoided healthcare due to cost. For example, the percentage of Americans living in rural areas who are going without care is increasing at a faster rate than those living in urban areas.
Troubling picture: Click the chart to enlarge it. The information comes from Health, United States, 2009, which is the 33rd annual report on the health status of the Nation, prepared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the President and the Congress. 2006 is the most recent data available. The entire report is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm
To help make sense of the mountains of healthcare information piling up every day, GE has been looking for ways to visualize the data so that more people can use it. The goal is to increase awareness about important health trends. That awareness, in turn, can help increase access to care — which is one of the drivers of GE’s healthymagination strategy.
As Ben Fry, who’s partnered with GE on a number of data visualizations, and GE’s Camille Kubie wrote about the concept in their recent GE Reports blog post: “How can critical questions be tackled intelligently when the information gets in the way? While faster computers and bigger hard disks have made us really good at measuring and recording things, we have not kept up with how to present the resulting information. Consumers face the twin problems of determining the credibility of data sets and accessing those data sets in forms that are easily absorbed. In other words, what should we ignore and how can we “see” relevant data more clearly?”
They add: “By its very nature, data visualization can be exceptionally flexible with an ability to be both aesthetically driven as well as utilitarian. Great visualizations are business tools, communication platforms, and works of art. The designs are as varied as the solutions but the good ones share one thing in common: they present complex information clearly and intelligently.”
* Read “Ben Fry at SXSW 2010: Visualizing data challenges” on GE Reports
* Read “A GOOD look at the ‘Cost of Chronic Diseases’” on GE Reports
* See all of our recent data visualizations in one place