The state of Ohio, when it comes to the overall health of its residents, is very low. According to the 2021 Health Value Dashboard, Ohio ranks 47th out of 50 states and Washington D.C. when it comes to the value of health. This means that Ohioans are less healthy and people in Ohio are spending more money on healthcare than people in other states (Aly et al., 2021). Some of the reasons why people are less healthy in Ohio result from the use of tobacco and alcohol products, along with drug overdose deaths and heart disease. These are things that could all be prevented at a higher rate through public policy within the state. Although access to care within the state is ranked high, the spending from the government is not. The government is not putting as much money into the healthcare system and many people must rely on having good, private insurance to take care of themselves and their families. In Ohio, there has been such a heavy focus on COVID-19, that other health issues have not been focused on and caused a decrease in overall health as well. The pandemic is also causing hospitals to fill their beds and then they are not able to treat people coming in with other health issues because they are out of room.

The state of Indiana is also struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, along with every other state in our country and every other country in the world. In Indiana, today, only 10.7% of ICU beds are available within the state, 37.3% of those beds are being used by covid patients (Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), 2021). To combat this, the state is working hard on getting people vaccinated to help reduce the strength of the symptoms of the virus, in hopes that it will keep people out of the hospitals.

Pennsylvania is also combating the virus and has very similar issues as Ohio and Indiana. They are also seeing a rise in the number of positive test results, which has led to more hospitalizations as well. The state is also pushing for more people to get vaccinated as well. One thing that they are focusing on is health equity during the pandemic. The department of health has been working on promoting justice and trying to limit the health inequities during these times (Health equity 2021). Equity is something that is being battled throughout our entire country, so it is refreshing to see that this is something that has become a large area of focus during this time, and hopefully it carries on past this.

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