The health of Americans has recently been under close scrutiny in a study that analyzed health risks state by state. The report is called America’s Health Rankings, and it was published as a result of a benevolent collaboration between UnitedHealth Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention. Given the recent problems the American health care system has been facing, it’s not surprising that the results of the study were nothing to boast about.

For instance, Louisiana is not the unhealthiest state in the United States, displacing last year’s “winner”, Mississippi. The Southern states went head to head this year, and Texas has had one of the worst results, with rates growing on the prevalence of smoking, obesity and children in poverty. Also, the rate of uninsured people is incredibly high in the South. In Louisiana, 20% of the inhabitants lack health insurance, while in the state of Texas, the percentage is of a whopping 25%.

Louisiana is also under siege from infant mortality, premature death rate and cancer deaths. According to Dr. Reed Tuckson, with UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the United States, it seems that America hasn’t made any progress when it comes to the overall health state of the nation. The comparison is made to the last 18 annual state ranking reports made by the foundation, American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention advocacy group.

Good news for Vermont, though, as the state has won 1st place as the healthiest of all. The following 8 healthiest states were Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Idaho and Maine. The last two were Louisiana and Mississippi, followed by South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nevada and Georgia.