Millions without health care.

Despite the vigorous economy in most parts of the country, the statistics are disturbing: An estimated 41 million American have no health insurance, and 44 million live in areas where there are few doctors.

Working with data from state primary care offices, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has developed two indices that track these issues. One represents the percent of people in each state who have no health insurance and no access to a free community health center. The other represents, as a percentage, the people in each state who lack health care because of too few providers. (The accepted ration is 2,000 people to one provider.)

Examining the interplay between these two problems gives states a clue as to what kinds of policies they may want to develop.

A state with a high percentage of people without health insurance, but plenty of doctors, will better help people if it can come up with a way to get more insured. These are mostly states with a significant immigrant population - New York...