Airline Profits Soar To Jaw-Dropping Record In 2015

While you, the customers, had your knees pinned against the seat in front of you and were forced to swallow record baggage and booking fees last year, the U.S. airline industry saw profits soar to the very cushiest of highs.

The Department of Transportation reported Monday that 25 U.S. airline companies combined in 2015 for after-tax earnings of $25.6 billion -- a more than threefold increase over the $7.5 billion in profits one year earlier.

Last year's profits, largely driven by a huge drop in the price of jet fuel without much change in what you pay for flying, is the most since at least 1976, when Congress deregulated the airline industry, according to USA Today. The earnings are enough to purchase more than 70 Boeing 747 airliners.

George Rose via Getty Images

It was the sixth straight year of industry profits, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But the good times have come after years of red ink: The industry lost $27.2 billion in 2005 and $23.7 billion in 2008.

In 2015, total operating revenues dropped slightly to $168.9 billion, from $169.3 billion in 2014, the department said. At $126.9 billion, airline fares accounted for nearly three-fourths of all revenue. Baggage and reservation change fees accounted for $3.8 billion and $3 billion, respectively.

Overshadowing the industry's slight decline in revenues, however, was dramatically lower fuel costs, to $27 billion in 2015 from $43.4 billion the previous year.

Despite their savings, the airlines charged only slightly lower ticket prices during 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the average domestic airline flight dropped to $363 -- the least since 2010, according to the Transportation Department. The airlines' jet fuel windfall has been slow to trickle down the aisle, however, and with new fees, passengers likely aren't paying less.

Melanie Hinton, a spokeswoman for industry trade group Airlines for America, told USA Today that U.S. airlines are "putting every dollar to work for customers, employees and investors."

Others see things far differently. 

"Everybody keeps telling us that we’re seeing all these improvements, but nobody’s seeing them," Charles Leocha, a founder of Travelers United, told the newspaper. “New airplanes don’t help us when the planes are bigger with more seats on board and they’re squeezing more people into them."

Last month, the Senate voted down a measure aimed at preventing airlines from further reducing the amount of legroom. At the time, as Politico reported, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke in defense of his amendment, saying, "The great Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man’s legs should be, and he famously answered, ‘Long enough to reach from the body to the ground.’ If you asked a major airline today how long should a man’s legs be, they’d say, ‘Short enough to miss the tray table.’ That’s not a way to fly.”

But hey, at least the airlines have been kind enough to bring back complimentary cookies and pretzels. Enjoy!

The House Just Voted To Give Wall Street Billions From Americans' Retirement Savings

If the House of Representatives gets its way, President Barack Obama won't be able to crack down on unnecessary fees that cost Americans billions of dollars in retirement savings a year.

The House voted 234 to 188 Thursday to undo a rule proposed by the Labor Department earlier this month that would require anyone getting paid to provide retirement investment advice to act in the best interest of retirees. Many people think that's already how things work, but it isn't.

The way things work right now is that brokers who oversee retirement savings accounts can be paid extra to steer their clients into unnecessarily expensive funds or excessively risky investments, without disclosing that fact to their clients. That sort of conflicted investment advice costs Americans saving for retirement $17 billion a year, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

To remedy the situation, the Obama administration proposed a fiduciary rule to keep Wall Street from taking so much money in fees from retirement accounts. The financial industry has opposed the rule from the start, saying it will raise costs and limit the advice investors can receive.

Legislators have tried to undercut the proposed rule, which is currently being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, for some time. In December, there was a push, which ultimately failed, to include language neutering the rule in the massive omnibus spending bill. And in October 2015, the House passed a similar bill to the one passed Thursday. Three such measures have been introduced in the Senate.

Fortunately for those worried about how this could affect savings, it's likely that Obama would veto any bill rejecting the fiduciary rule that made it through the House and Senate.

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is Going To Mars By 2018

Just when you thought Elon Musk couldn't possibly aim any higher, the billionaire tech magnate's private space company unveiled plans Wednesday to begin sending Dragon spacecrafts to Mars by 2018.

SpaceX told The Huffington Post the upcoming missions -- dubbed with the project name Red Dragon -- will test propulsion technologies required to land large payloads on the red planet and provide information for its Mars colonization architecture, which the company plans to make public later this year.

Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come pic.twitter.com/u4nbVUNCpA

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2016

Wednesday's announcement on Twitter comes just weeks after SpaceX pulled off a nearly impossible at-sea landing of its rocket booster -- a technological milestone that set the space community abuzz.

SpaceX says the unmanned Dragon spaceships will be carried to Mars aboard Falcon Heavy, a beefed-up version of its Falcon 9 booster capable of lifting the equivalent of a loaded 737 jetliner into orbit.

In addition to Falcon Heavy, slated to begin flying later this year, the company is working to develop its Dragon Version 2 spacecraft, capable of carrying a crew of seven. 

Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system. Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2016

But wouldn't recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region. Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys. Internal volume ~size of SUV.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2016

Hover test of our Dragon 2 spacecraft that can carry cargo and crew https://t.co/H0F7hQbZlB

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 21, 2016

Musk hasn't been shy about his goal of sending people to the red planet. Until now, however, he and SpaceX had not set a target date for initial unmanned missions.

SpaceX has its sights set on sending humans to our neighboring planet by 2026, and Musk says doing so could prove key to our species' survival. 

“Either we spread earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct,” he said at a conference in May 2013. “An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in.”

In a blog post Wednesday, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said the agency is "particularly excited" about the upcoming SpaceX program.

"In exchange for Martian entry, descent, and landing data from SpaceX, NASA will offer technical support for the firm’s plan to attempt to land an uncrewed Dragon 2 spacecraft on Mars," Newman wrote. "As the saying goes, 'spaceflight is hard.' Sending astronauts to Mars, which will be one of the greatest feats of human innovation in the history of civilization, carries with it many, many puzzles to piece together."

Ikea Has Bright Idea To Sell Solar Panels In UK Stores

The store that sells every home good under the sun now also sells solar panels.

The company announced on Monday that it will sell and install solar panels in the United Kingdom.

Three stores, in Glasgow, Birmingham and Lakeside, will act as a U.K. pilot for the company’s new “solar shops,” where the panels will be sold. Customers across the pond can also order and get a cost estimate of the panels online, and Ikea hopes to have solar shops in all of its U.K. stores by the end of the summer.

The announcement coincided with research conducted by Ikea that found that 33 percent of U.K. homeowners would like to invest in home solar panels as a way to help cut their electricity bills. According to the release, the same study says that customers could save up to 50 percent on their electricity bills with the solar panels.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ikea uses solar power in its stores. In this photo, Joseph Roth checks the installation of South Florida’s largest solar panel array atop the future IKEA store in Miami.

The Guardian reports that Ikea U.K. has made the move to sell the panels even after solar installations experienced a recent decline due to the government cutting subsidies to householders installing rooftop solar panels by a whopping 65 percent. That cut was made just days after the U.K. agreed to help the nation quickly shift to a low-carbon energy future at the climate change conference in Paris in late 2015.

This is Ikea U.K.’s second attempt at selling solar panels. The company had a two-year agreement with the Chinese company, Hanergy, but their partnership ended last year. Ikea UK is now working with the London-based company, SolarCentury, which will provide more efficient panels with a better aesthetic.

“At Ikea we believe that renewable energy is undoubtedly the power of the future,” Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainability at Ikea UK and Ireland said in the announcement. “We’re already using solar power across our operations, and it’s exciting to be able to help households tap into this wonderful source of clean energy.”

Saudi Arabia Can't Quit Oil

Saudi Arabia announced the seemingly impossible. The world’s largest oil producer and owner of an oil company reportedly worth more than $2 trillion, is going to kick its fossil fuel habit, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said yesterday.

 "We have developed a case of oil addiction in Saudi Arabia," he told al-Arabiya television news channel, after officially unveiling a plan whose key parts had already been carefully released.

Forty percent of the kingdom’s GDP and a whopping 90 percent of the government’s revenue comes from oil.

But that is coming to an end, Prince Mohammed said.

“By 2020, if oil stops we can survive,” he said. “We need it, we need it, but I think in 2020 we can live without oil."

It sounds impossible because it is. There is no way the Saudi economy can be reformed to be able to live without oil in just four years. With oil prices at historic lows and looking like they will stay there for a long time, they may wish they could live without oil in a few years.

But the only way to achieve Prince Mohammed’s admirable and ambitious goal is to do bit of entry-level balance sheet gymnastics.

In short, we don’t buy into Mohammed bin Salman’s assertion that Saudi Arabia will no longer by dependent on oil by 2020.

The Gulf kingdom owns all of Aramco oil company. It intends to sell shares of the company to outside investors and list it on the Saudi stock exchange. But the government plans to sell only 5 percent of Aramco to outside investors and retain ownership of 95 percent of the company. It will transfer that huge stake into a sovereign wealth fund, where it will be classified as an investment.

And that’s it, though there there is more to it in the long term. But the only way to meet Prince Mohammed’s 2020 timeline is to use some very basic category shifts. As the prince said, once Aramco is a public company and the Saudi’s shares are in a sovereign wealth fund, “technically, on paper, your income will be provided by investment. The remaining issue is how you diversify your investments.”

“There is less to this than meets the eye,” Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients. “It reflects a shift of balance sheets rather than any new assets and doesn’t in itself reduce the government’s dependence on oil revenues. In short, we don’t buy into Mohammed bin Salman’s assertion that Saudi Arabia will no longer by dependent on oil by 2020.”

Longer-term, the Saudi’s will keep selling Aramco shares and invest in other companies, slowly but steadily turning their kingdom from a family-owned oil company into a family-owned investment firm that owns an oil company. But that has to be a very deliberate and incremental process.

You just can’t sell trillions of dollars in a single company’s shares at once, and you can’t reform an oil-addicted economy by just moving around stock certificates.

Etsy Is Helping Its Sellers Get Solar Panels On Their Homes

Etsy has already offered flasks emblazoned with solar panels and canvas prints of photovoltaic equipment. 

Now the artisanal goods marketplace is helping people get actual solar panels. 

The site, which lets people buy and sell handcrafted home goods and other items, announced this week a pilot program to offer discounts to Etsy users in four states when they install solar panels on their homes. That could help offset the company's carbon footprint, 95 percent of which comes from shipping products.

The company is partnering with the solar energy marketplace Geostellar to measure the impact of each solar installation in terms of emissions reduction. Solar users can get discounts of up to $37 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, one of the chief greenhouse gases warming the planet and causing the climate to change. Etsy expects its customers to receive a total average discount of $2,000. 

Here's how it works, as explained in a joint press release from the companies: 

When a new participant applies for the Etsy Solar pilot program, Geostellar will instantly and interactively tailor a solar energy installation and financing plan to meet the unique needs of each individual household. Geostellar will then provide a discount based on the potential contribution of the clean solar energy generation toward the comprehensive emissions reduction goals of the Etsy community. Etsy developed the process according to Gold Standard requirements to enable those reduction rights to be validated, verified and registered as carbon offsets.

Etsy said it hopes to expand the program over the next year or so. For now, the company is choosing its starter states strategically. Etsy is based in Brooklyn, so it wanted to make sure it started in New York. In Florida, where big utility companies in 2014 quashed state-issued solar incentives, Etsy said it felt it could help bolster the industry.

The company also chose West Virginia and Utah because of those states’ long histories with mining and other causes of pollution.

“We felt like we could have a larger climate impact by helping solar there,” Chelsea Mozen, Etsy's senior sustainability specialist for energy and carbon, told The Huffington Post on Thursday.

In February, Etsy became the first U.S. company to be recertified as a benefit corporation, or B corp, by the nonprofit B Lab after going public. As part of the voluntary designation, the company must adhere to strict environmental standards.

"The bigger picture here is that we've been very outspoken about how social good and business can go hand-in-hand -- they're not at odds with each other," Mozen said. "A lot of people on both sides want to say 'If you do social good, then you don't care about profit.' We're really trying to hold them in equal balance. They don't have to be either/or."

12 States Struggling With Mental Illness

Close to 10 million Americans suffer from chronic depression, bipolar disorder, or another serious mental illness. Depression alone is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the United States, mental illness — including depression — takes an enormous toll on health outcomes, quality of life, and economic productivity.

Despite its importance, mental illness is often poorly understood and subject to misperceptions by the general population, government officials, and even those who suffer from mental illness. Partially as a consequence, just under one-third of individuals with serious mental illness — defined as diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders that result in functional impairment — go untreated in the United States. In 2014, an estimated 44.7% of the 43.6 million adults with any mental illness, and 68.5% of the 9.8 million adults with serious mental illness received mental health services in the past year.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 12 states where the highest shares of the adult population suffers from serious mental illness.

Click here to see the 12 states struggling with mental illness.

Depression and mental disorders are treatable psychiatric illnesses. Therapy, as well as a huge amount of prescription drugs such as anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers are used to treat serious mental illnesses. Because of this, states with a high share of adults with serious mental illness also tend to have more drugs prescribed per capita. The number of these and other kinds of retail drugs prescribed exceeded the national average of 12.7 prescriptions per capita in all but four of these 12 states. In West Virginia and Kentucky, more than 20 drugs are prescribed per person each year.

While the 12 states struggling the most with mental illness do not necessarily have the nation’s highest poverty rates, mental illness is far more common among people living in poverty. Of adults living in poverty, 8.7% report serious psychological distress, in contrast with 1.2% of adults with incomes at least four times higher than the poverty level — around $50,000 — according to the CDC.

A number of socioeconomic factors are associated with mental illness, either as contributors or outcomes. People with mental illnesses are more likely than others to abuse alcohol or illicit drugs. Residents of states struggling the most with mental illness are not necessarily among the most likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. However, in the majority of states with the highest prevalence of serious mental illness, higher shares of adults report needing, but not receiving, treatment for drug use than the 2.2% national average.

States assign different levels of importance to mental illness. Budget allocation for mental health issues varies considerably between states. Only 12 states have increased their respective mental health authority’s budget in each of the past three years. Idaho is the only state with a disproportionately high share of mentally ill residents to have increased its mental health budget annually over this period. Meanwhile North Carolina, which is also home to one of the highest shares of mentally ill adults, is one of just three states to have reduced its mental health budget every year since 2013.

Several states with a relatively high share of adults with mental illness are implementing progressive policies to better address societal issues associated with mental illness. Indiana, for instance, implemented a policy last year requiring state police academies to provide a crisis intervention overview to all police trainees for emergency instances involving the mentally ill.

To determine the 12 states struggling the most with mental illness, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the share of the adult population with a serious mental illness in each state based on surveys conducted between 2013 and 2014 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Serious mental illness is defined as “having, at any time during the past year, a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder that causes serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.” The prevalence of any mental illness, which serious mental disorders that may not have impaired life activities for example, also came from SAMHSA. The percentage of adults reporting at least one major depressive episode in the past year, the share of adults who had suicidal thoughts in the past year, and alcohol and illicit drug abuse rates also came from SAMHSA. Per capita drug prescription rates came from the Kaiser Family Foundation. State mental health legislation and spending was compiled by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. We also considered poverty rates, uninsured rates, and educational attainment rates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) as well as 2015 annual unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These are the 12 states struggling the most with mental illness, according to 24/7 Wall St.

• AP IMAGES FOR AMERICAN EXPRESS
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.7%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 361,000 (8th highest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 8.7% (20th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 17.6% (13th highest)

Of North Carolina adults, an estimated 4.7% have a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder — that is, serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress, and eating disorders. This is the 12th highest share of all states. Mental illness is associated in particular with thoughts of suicide. In North Carolina, 4.3% of adults reported having thoughts of suicide in the past year, the eighth highest percentage in the nation.

Like only two other states, North Carolina has cut mental health spending in the last three years. Last year, despite the governor’s proposed 4% mental health spending increase, the legislature cut the budget by $84 million, or 14%.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Raymond Boyd via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.7%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 237,000 (13th highest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 9.3% (17th highest)
> Poverty rate: 15.5% (24th highest)

In Indiana, 7.6% of adults reported having at least one major depressive episode last year, one of the largest shares in the country. Chronic and persistent depression that interferes with day-to-day functioning is one of several serious mental illnesses that an estimated 4.7% of adults in Indiana struggles with.

In light of the relative prevalence of mental illness in the state, Indiana increased its mental health authority’s budget in 2015. The same year, Senate Bill 380 directed the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to create a central resource for training, funding, and other technical assistance for crisis intervention teams across the state. The bill also requires state police academies to provide mental health crisis intervention overviews to all police trainees.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• George Frey via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.8%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 97,000 (19th lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 7.8% (3rd lowest)
> Poverty rate: 12.8% (15th lowest)

Slightly more than one in every five adults in Utah are living with some form of mental illness, which includes serious mental illness as well as a range of other less severe disorders, a larger share than in all but four other states. The share of adults living with serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or chronic depression, at 4.8% is considerably higher than the 4.0% of American adults with such an illness.

Unlike some states, Utah is taking active measures to treat mental health issues. Last year, the state was applauded by NAMI for passing House Bill 209, requiring certain behavioral health specialists to complete additional suicide prevention training to renew their license to practice. Of Utah adults, an estimated 4.8% reported having thoughts of suicide in the past year, the highest percentage in the country.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Tim Graham via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.8%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 109,000 (21st lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 8.3% (10th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 22.6% (the highest)

Psychological distress is far more common among people living in poverty than it is among more financially well-off individuals. Financial distress may partially explain the relatively high prevalence of serious mental illness in Mississippi, where 22.6% of people live in poverty, the highest poverty rate in the nation. Furthermore, 4.8% of adults in Mississippi are estimated to have a serious, diagnosable mental illness, among the highest percentages nationwide.

In addition to therapy, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and mood stabilizers are frequently used to treat serious mental illness. In Mississippi, 17.7 of these and other kinds of medications are prescribed per resident in a single year, the fourth highest prescriptions per capita in the country.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Bloomberg via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.8%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 434,000 (5th highest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 9.3% (18th highest)
> Poverty rate: 15.9% (19th highest) Substance use is more common among those suffering from mental distress.

Substances such as tobacco, alcohol and other drugs are frequently used as self-medication. In Ohio, 9.3% of adults abuse or are dependent on alcohol or illicit drugs, higher than the 8.8% national substance abuse rate. Adults in the state are also more likely than most American adults to suffer from short-term episodes of major depression. Of Ohio adults, 7.2% reported suffering from at least one major depressive episode within the past year, the ninth highest share of any state. Along with substance abuse and depression, adults in the state are also more likely to suffer from serious mental illness than most Americans. In Ohio, 4.8% of adults are living with a serious mental illness, one of the largest such shares in the country.

With relative prevalence of mental illness, Ohio residents are some of the most medicated in the country. Each year, roughly 17.5 prescriptions are filled for every state resident, considerably more than the 12.7 prescriptions filled for every American annually.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Education Images via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.9%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 59,000 (12th lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 9.1% (23rd highest)
> Poverty rate: 15.6% (20th highest)

In Idaho, 20.3% of adults have some sort of mental disorder, including serious mental illnesses as well as less severe mental disorders, one of the largest shares in the country and considerably more than the 17.8% share of American adults suffering from a mental illness. Of the state’s mentally ill residents, roughly 59,000 suffer from a serious mental illness — schizophrenia, severe depression, and other disorder that can cause severe functional impairment.

Perhaps because mental illness is more common in Idaho than in much of the rest of the country, the state is investing more in treatment programs. While many states are reducing funding for mental health services, Idaho’s Mental Health Services department’s budget has increased in each of the last three years, one of only 12 states to do so.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Bloomberg via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.9%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 230,000 (16th highest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 8.5% (18th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 15.6% (20th highest)

Nearly one in every 20 adults in Missouri report serious mental illness, which include a range of psychiatric ailments from schizophrenia to eating disorders. Mental illness in the United States has been largely misunderstood, underfunded, and undertreated — even for those with health insurance. Some states have taken notable steps to address the issue. Missouri’s legislature last year enacted Senate Bill 145, an act mandating health care providers to cover eating disorders.

Like most states struggling the most with serious mental illness, Missourians are more likely than adults nationwide to report at least one depressive episode or thoughts of suicide within the past year.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Bloomberg via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 4.9%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 168,000 (21st highest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 7.9% (5th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 18.9% (5th highest)

Kentucky is home to a relatively high share of adults with a serious mental illness. Roughly 168,000 Kentucky adults have a diagnosable serious mental illness, 4.9% of the state’s adult population. By contrast, only 4.0% of American adults grapple with a serious mental illness. Since anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and mood stabilizers are frequently used to treat mental illness, the relative prevalence of mental illness in Kentucky may explain the high level of drug prescriptions in the state. Each year, there are 22 of these and other kinds of prescriptions filled per state resident in a single year, the highest drug prescription rate in the country. Despite the relative prevalence of serious mental health issues, Kentucky has cut funding for its mental health department in each of the last two years.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• DANNY JOHNSTON/AP
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 5.1%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 115,000 (22nd lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 7.7% (2nd lowest)
> Poverty rate: 19.2% (4th highest)

In Arkansas, 7.1% of adults reported having a major depressive episode within the past year, and 4.5% reported having thoughts of suicide, each among the highest shares of any state in the country. Some of those reporting such incidents likely partially comprise the 5.1% of adults in the state with a serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Like other states with high relative prevalence of mental illness, Arkansas is home to one of the most medicated populations in the country. There are 15.8 prescriptions filled per state resident annually, considerably more than the 12.7 per capita prescription drug rate nationally.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Beth J. Harpaz/AP
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 5.2%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 56,000 (11th lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 8.2% (8th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 13.9% (22nd lowest)

Maine is one of only four states where an estimated more than one in every 20 adults suffer from serious mental illness. Accounting for less serious forms of psychiatric illness, more than one in every five adults report some form of mental illness, the seventh largest proportion in the country. Roughly 87,000 Maine adults reported at least one major depressive episode within the past year, or 8.1% of the population, the highest percentage of all states.

Residents of rural areas not only need to travel further to health facilities, but also they may be more vulnerable to social isolation — a major driver and component of a number of mental illnesses. High proportions of Mainers live in very rural areas, which may help partially explain the state’s high prevalence of serious mental illness.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• Education Images via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 5.3%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 27,000 (5th lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 10.1% (5th highest)
> Poverty rate: 12.0% (13th lowest) Approximately 27,000

Vermonters are beset with serious mental illnesses, comprising 5.3% of the state’s adult population, the second highest percentage of all states. Mental illness in the United States has been largely misunderstood, underfunded, and under-treated — even for those with health insurance. In Vermont, however, the legislature last year enacted Senate Bill 139, a law intended to improve access to and quality of mental health services. Health insurance coverage in the state, which at about 93% is nearly the highest in the nation, may in the future be more valuable to the mentally ill. The state also enacted a law in 2015 prohibiting some state residents from possessing firearms due to mental illness.

People with mental health disorders are more likely to abuse alcohol or other substances than individuals without serious mental illnesses. Of adults in Vermont, 10.1% report abusing or dependence on alcohol or illicit drugs, the fifth highest share nationwide.

Read more on 24/7 Wall St.
• The Washington Post via Getty Images
> Pct. of adults with serious mental illness: 5.4%
> Total adults with serious mental illness: 79,000 (15th lowest)
> Pct. of adults abusing alcohol or illicit drugs: 9.2% (19th highest)
> Poverty rate: 18.1 (10th highest)

Serious mental illness is treated with therapy, as well as with drugs such as anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and mood stabilizers. In West Virginia, 21.8 medications are prescribed per resident in a single year, the second highest per capita prescriptions in the country and significantly higher than the national level of 12.7 prescriptions per capita. The 9.2% share of West Virginia adults dependent on illicit drugs or reporting alcohol abuse within the past year, while slightly higher than the national prevalence, is not especially high. However, 2.6% of adults in the state report needing but not receiving treatment for illicit drug use, the fourth highest such percentage nationwide.

According to the CDC, psychological distress is far more common among people living in poverty than it is among financially stable individuals. The typical West Virginia household earns $41,576 annually, nearly the lowest median household income in the nation. The poverty rate of 18.1% is also among the highest in the country. Such conditions may have contributed to the high prevalence of serious mental illness in the state.

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