4/3/23

Hawaii is The Healthiest State To Live in America - 2023

                According to several leading national Health Ranking surveys, Hawaii has again made the news as one of the top 5 list of Healthiest states to live in the United States of America, with many putting Hawaii as #1. This has been the trend for decades now. 

                There are several reasons for this. First, Hawaii ranks #1 in state Health Care service according to many rankings, and is widely respected as having one of the best Health Care systems in America. The state assigns a high tax share to each resident to cover nearly everyone and Full Medical Care IS provided to nearly everyone. They have less than 4% of residents as being uninsured without health insurance. Second, the nature and beauty and warm tropical weather of Hawaii leads many of it's residents outdoors to engage in physically active lifestyles. More exercise leads to better health. Also, Hawaii has some of the cleanest air in the world. Being located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean keeps the environment fresh and clean and Hawaii is very far from any major pollution any heavy industrial pollution.

                There are some downsides to the Hawaiian dream life that pulls down it's rankings from being even higher in all categories, for example economic rankings. There is a high economic hardship index ranking and excessive alcohol drinking ranking. To be sure, in Hawaii state the major economy is the tourism industry and hospitality sector. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the cost of living is high in Hawaii with housing being among the most expensive on average in America and there a large sectors of the state population especially Native Hawaiians who do not share in the prosperity and do not get to live in the most desirable locations. Also Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders as an ethnic group have much higher rates of obesity and diabetes and economic hardships, unfortunately, statistically, than other groups in Hawaii, and have suffered historically from discrimination, displacement, racism, and theft of their independent Hawaiian Kingdom nation in 1898 by the United States Government, a fact first officially recognized and apologized for in legislation termed US Public Law 103-150 that was signed by United States President Bill Clinton in 1993. 

                On a personal note, I was able to live for about 1 year in Hawaii as a young student. I lived in a student dorm in Waikiki and commuted to Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) in downtown Honolulu on the TheBus, one of the best public bus systems in the world. I was very young at Age 22 and found some success there and for for some time I lived the Hawaiian dream and when I was on point with my classes and staying a bit social and living a heathy lifestyle with quality sleep, a good diet, and some exercise, I really felt great there and the energy and vibrancy of the community was exciting and good and the natural beauty of the area made it easier to just get out walk around or go for jogs and go to the gym. Going to the beach and jogging trail made for great scenic adventures and I could do no wrong going to the Ala Moana Shopping Mall and entertainment complex. I remember that it was a little slower pace of life in Hawaii, which fit my needs well. There were a number of students in my dorm and campus life who were quite friendly and positive caring to me and I made a number of quality friendships and I enjoyed the positive social connections. There were many caring people in my student life there, I feel I was mostly responsible for not being as social and outgoing as I was capable of being, I made less effort to be bold and take risks socially and I was capable of being more warm and friendly to those reaching out to me, and many good people in college and the community reached out to me in friendship.

                However, like many college students, I was still juggling what my best long-term academic and career goals were and I was not having any income while I was a student there which made me feel weaker less confident and eventually my focus on classes was off and I did not maintain that healthy lifestyle that I needed to. I also ended up dropping out academically and socially, losing a lot of my focus on life to move forward, I went searching for a long lost romantic partner and for those major reasons I left my student life in Hawaii prematurely and returned to the mainland in California to try to reset and find a new path. This path I took disappointed many people and I immediately would go on to  struggle a lot in California. And for many years after being a student here, even though I left amid personal struggling circumstances, I sentimentalized and missed and longed for the good experiences and relative freedom I had in Hawaii and I have dreamed about if could still be a place to return and if not be a college student again but get my old lifestyle there back in a bigger and better way by living a stable Mature Young Adult life with my own Condo and Good Job and Family and Friends Support System and some reasonable income to support the high quality of life.

                It does not seem too feasible for me now that I have been living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area for some time now and I was married here to a nice girl and I have been raising a toddler girl with her here...we have since our marriage managed some modest savings (at the time of my marriage I had no money of my own though I had had years of work experience but that's another long story) and now after 5 years of working together here we still can't come close to affording a Good House here and Hawaii would be even more expensive than the Bay Area....There have not been very good opportunities here in the San Francisco Bay Area for me in terms of education, training, Career....Plus I personally have no support or encouragement from anyone to settle down in Hawaii now at all except negative mocking teasing sometimes angrily by my wife about her booking a one-way airplane ticket for me to fly to Hawaii and find some  desperate way to make money and then send back child support to the Bay Area for our baby girl's schooling which she my wife wants to be done in the Bay Area as it apparently is known for good schools....or was?...LOL????…This Area has really gone downhill  in my opinion. Nonetheless for years even before my marriage it still has been a dream that comes up in my Head, every once in a while, I love Hawaii and will always remember the positive Good Youthful student days in Hawaii I had that at times was a dreamlike adventure in Paradise that was a gift and a privilege.

                I feel I must be humble and reflective and accept my large share of the responsibility of what I consider to be a great setback that I did I did not at the time take the extra effort and time to work with the elders in my life better like my parents and professors and college advisors to complete my education there and try to find a Good Career that matched my talents, ability, and interests and potentially settle down in Hawaii longer-term with good housing and a good Income and overall a very Good Quality of Life.

               But that's Enough about me, Going back to the subject of Hawaii and it's status as the healthiest state in America, I would like to see and I am interested in helping Hawaii having a more sustainable future and develop and improve in other areas of it's quality of life too like environmentally, socially, and economically. There was a dip in tourism and the state's economy during the height of the COVID pandemic but I read that Hawaii as a state and as a people handled the crisis well and the tourism sector has rebounded. It would be great to see improvements in the education system in Hawaii as well in primary, secondary, and higher education. To deal with climate change in the future, there are steps that can be taken to alleviate those impacts. It would be great to see more job training and economic opportunities for the people of Hawaii so more could be part of a thriving economy. Affordable housing programs could help get more people into good housing that are currently priced out. I also believe it would be hugely beneficial to help keep low the rates of diabetes and obesity and drug/alcohol addiction, and to manage and treat better medically the population that already suffer from those diseases. In addition, there needs to be good and creative ways to handle the homelessness problem as well that can respect the complicated problems the homeless suffer with and the communities they call home. I believe the Hawaii State government and an active, engaged citizenry of Hawaii can work together to help improve not just the state's health rankings but other measures of it's quality of life as well, so that Hawaii can be known in the future as one of the best places to live not just in America but in the world.


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