Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign
The Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign was a statewide effort started in Washington in 2004 by the Washington Health Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Seattle, with the intention of improving the general health of people living in the state. The campaign, launched September 18, 2004, ultimately sought to raise Washington's health ranking to number one in the United States.
In 2012, the WHF ran out of funding, resulting in a suspension of all major operations, including the campaign.
History
When Washington's rank in the America's Health Rankings 2003 national report dropped out of the top ten, the Washington Health Foundation began to channel its efforts towards leading a major health reform in the state.Community Roundtables
After completing a series of polls, WHF found that Washington citizens wanted to be more involved in changing the healthcare system, viewing it as a shared responsibility with the government and the community. WHF addressed these findings by holding community events in every county of Washington in order to foster discussion between public and private leaders, organizations, businesses, advocacy groups and local citizens on their common health values.Over three months, 1,200 people participated in the community round tables, resulting in 44 meetings and 10,000 individual responses. A researcher from the University of Washington analyzed the responses, yielding nine key values of importance to the public regarding the healthcare system:
Washington Health Leadership Summit
As a response to its findings, the WHF coordinated the Washington Health Leadership Summit, meeting with elected officials, community leaders, and individual citizens. The two-day event was held from October 27–28, 2003 at the Seattle Seahawks stadium where the nine key values were presented and then prioritized via instant electronic voting after discussion. In addition, participants agreed upon adding a tenth value: to educate and engage the people of Washington state on these issues surrounding healthcare improvement.The ten values formed the foundation of the Washington Health Leadership Resolution calling on Washington leaders to set aside special interests and partisan differences and work together to design a health care system based on the values adopted at the summit. Signed by more than 250 Washington politicians including Washington Governor Gary Locke and King County Executive Ron Sims, the resolution and its values laid the groundwork for the creation of the Healthiest State Campaign.
Campaign
To educate and engage the people of Washington on health issues, the Healthiest State in the Nation campaign was created as a long-term civic engagement effort. Using the United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings model as a guide, the Healthiest State Campaign was developed around six action areas, each with two health measures used in determining the state's health rank. The campaign aimed to improve these areas through civic engagement while emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility and collective action in making Washington the healthiest state.| Action Areas | Measures |
| Promoting community health | Promoting economic well-being, raising the high school graduation rate |
| Investing in prevention | Insuring for prevention, public health system investment |
| Increasing value in health services | Health Home, improving medical care quality |
| Protecting Against Injury & Disease | Use of proven preventive care, injury and violence prevention |
| Avoiding addictions | Avoiding smoking and drinking |
| Engaging in healthy habits | Engaging in physical activity and proper nutrition |
Launch and beyond
On September 18, 2004, Governor Locke proclaimed the date "Washington Health Day", officially launching the Healthiest State in the Nation campaign and making Washington's Congressional Delegation its first endorsers.In 2005, the WHF developed a web data system in order to engage the Washington public in the campaign. The newly developed system played a role in the first Governor's Health Bowl, a statewide event sponsored by the WHF and led by the newly elected Governor Christine Gregoire.
The event started with Gregoire's challenge to the Washington state public to collectively walk, run, or bike one million miles. More than 17,000 individuals, 300 organizations and 115 schools took on the challenge by logging their miles of physical activity at the WHF's website. The event awarded additional points to those who correctly answered questions about health systems in Washington. That year, Washington state moved up one ranking, from 15th to 14th, in the 2005 edition of America's Health Rankings.
2005 also marked the launch of the campaigns' quarterly magazine, thrive! Distributed through Washington's health care authority in libraries, universities, schools, and hospitals; 150,000 copies were circulated statewide at launch. The magazine provided readers with resources and ideas to encourage healthier lifestyles and highlighted the success stories of those impacting Washington health. Issues featured local celebrities like Suzy Preston, a winner on NBC's The Biggest Loser and Seattle Seahawks former player Shaun Alexander.
The campaign began to focus on the political aspects of health in 2006, developing a priority list and working with the Washington State Legislature to produce laws and policies to improve Washington health.
The WHF released the 2006 Report Card on Washington's Health, assessing Washington's rank in 18 health measures and outcomes which were heavily derived from America's Health Rankings. Its findings quickly permeated all branches of the campaign, its measures becoming the focus of the second Governor's Health Bowl in 2006.
Differing from the previous year, the 2006 Health Bowl became a six-week event, included an increased 2.5-million-mile challenge from Gov. Gregoire and featured its first ever Healthiest Business Challenge sponsored by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Spokane Chamber of Commerce. The event also retained many of its original features, such as the Healthiest School Challenge, where schools across Washington competed to log the most miles of physical activity. With growing numbers in participation and partnering organizations, the annual Health Bowl quickly became the campaign's signature event.
Throughout the rest of 2006, the Healthiest State Campaign worked to address the results of the 2006 Report Card with events like the Heroes of Health Gala, the New Year's Resolution Challenge, the Healthy Schools Summit, the Latina Health Fair, and the Spring Training Challenge. In 2007, Washington state's health rank climbed from 15th to 12th, becoming one of five states to earn the title of "Most Improved State." Washington was ranked 10th on the WHF's 2008 Report Card.
Healthiest State xChange
In 2010, the WHF unveiled the Healthiest State xChange, and began its implementation in 2011. The program provided free support for consumers and businesses to help purchase and manage health insurance plans. The service additionally encouraged users to make the WHF their insurance broker of record, after which the WHF would charge a commission for their services.The program was designed to be a sustainable revenue source for the WHF, as it had consumed nearly all of its reserves. However, in 2012, the WHF determined that the program would not be able to cover their expenses. In 2013, the WHF winded down its major operations and sold the xChange program to a private insurance broker and subsequently suspended it.