Major insurers such as Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare recently announced their exit from state-sponsored insurance exchanges while the uninsured rate has fallen to a historic low, bringing into question the cost and quality of health care in America. With such developments in mind, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s States with the Best & Worst Health Care.
In order to determine which states offer the most cost-effective and highest-quality care, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 29 key metrics. Our data set ranges from “average monthly insurance premium” to “number of physicians per capita” to “percentage of adults and children with health-insurance coverage.”
| States with the Best Health Care | States with the Worst Health Care | ||||
| 1 | Minnesota | 42 | Alabama | ||
| 2 | Maryland | 43 | South Carolina | ||
| 3 | South Dakota | 44 | Oklahoma | ||
| 4 | Iowa | 45 | West Virginia | ||
| 5 | Utah | 46 | Georgia | ||
| 6 | Kansas | 47 | Arkansas | ||
| 7 | Hawaii | 48 | Nevada | ||
| 8 | Vermont | 49 | Mississippi | ||
| 9 | District of Columbia | 50 | Louisiana | ||
| 10 | Nebraska | 51 | Alaska | ||
Best vs. Worst
- Minnesota has the lowest average monthly insurance premium, $234, which is 2.4 times lower than in Alaska, where the premium is highest, $567.
- The District of Columbia has the highest number of hospital beds per 1,000 residents, 6.97, which is 3.4 times higher than in Oregon, where the number is lowest, 2.05.
- The District of Columbia has the highest number of physicians per 100,000 residents, 849.3, which is 4.6 times higher than in Mississippi, where the number is lowest, 184.7.
- Massachusetts has the highest number of dentists per 100,000 residents, 52.12, which is 3.4 times higher than in Tennessee, where the number is lowest, 15.50.
- California has the highest retention rate for medical residents, 69.8 percent, which is 4.5 times higher than in the District of Columbia, where the rate is lowest, 15.4 percent.
- California has the lowest number of infant mortalities per 1,000 births, 4.30, which is two times lower than in Alabama, where the number is highest, 8.68.
- Colorado has the lowest percentage of adults who have had a stroke, 1.7 percent, which is 2.7 times lower than in Arkansas, where the percentage is highest, 4.6 percent.
- Kentucky and West Virginia share the lowest percentage of at-risk adults without a routine doctor visit in the past two years, 10.3 percent, which is 1.7 times lower than in Vermont, where the number is highest, 17.7 percent.
- Massachusetts has the lowest percentage of adults without a dental visit in the past year, 25.3 percent, which is 1.8 lower than in West Virginia, where the percentage is highest, 45.1 percent.
