The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2021’s Best & Worst States for Health Care.
In order to determine where Americans receive the highest-quality services at the best prices, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 44 key measures of health care cost, accessibility and outcome. The data set ranges from the average monthly insurance premium to physicians per capita to the share of insured population.
The top 10 best states for health care were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Hawaii, Maryland, Vermont, Colorado, Iowa, Connecticut and South Dakota. The 10 worst states for health care include: Missouri, Nevada, West Virginia, Wyoming, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisana and Alabama.
Highlights: Best vs Worst:
- Utah has the lowest average monthly health-insurance premium, $405, which is 2.6 times lower than in Vermont, the highest at $1,050.
- California has the highest retention rate for medical residents, 70.60 percent, which is 4.5 times higher than in the District of Columbia, the lowest at 15.70 percent
- Vermont has the lowest number of infant mortalities (per 1,000 live births), three, which is three times lower than in Mississippi, the highest at nine.
- Louisiana has the lowest share of at-risk adults without a routine doctor visit in the past two years, 8.70 percent, which is 1.7 times lower than in California, the highest at 14.80 percent.
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