Best & Worst States for Health Care

With the Average American spending more than $11,000 per year on personal health care, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2021’s Best & Worst States for Health Care, as well as expert commentary.

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.

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.

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-health-care/23457

More from WalletHub

• Best & Worst States for Children’s Health Care
• Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities in America
• Best & Worst States for Doctors
• Best & Worst States for Nurses

Expert Commentary

What tips do you have for a person looking to find the right balance between the cost of premium and level of coverage?

“Sometimes the lowest cost plan upfront is not the best option because it could leave you with hefty medical bills down the road. Generally, a plan with a low premium means that you will pay more out of pocket for medical care in two ways. First, you will have a higher deductible, which you must pay before insurance starts to pay for most care. That deductible can be thousands of dollars in the lowest-priced plans, like the Bronze plans on the ACA marketplaces. Second, even after the deductible, you will pay more in copayments when you use care, like $25 per visit or 10% of total visit costs. If you do not anticipate using any, or much, medical care, the lowest-priced premium plan might be okay for you. But you should keep reserves to pay for an emergency in case one occurs so that you can get care if you need it.”
Allison K. Hoffman – Professor of Law, Penn Law School – University of Pennsylvania

“For consumers who wish to buy a health insurance plan through an employer (group insurance) or independently through the market exchanges (individual insurance), there is an importation tradeoff between a lower premium and a lower generosity of coverage. One important consideration to find the right balance is how many health care services do you plan to use? If you are relatively healthy and do not have any chronic conditions (e.g., asthma) that require purchasing prescription drugs every month, you have more options in terms of whether to choose a “lower premium, less generous” plan or a “higher premium, more generous” plan.”
Gilbert Gimm, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, George Mason University

What measures can local authorities take to better support hospitals and healthcare providers as the pandemic progresses?

“Local authorities can support hospitals’ and providers’ decisions on COVID safety, such as keeping mask mandates in place and requiring employees to be vaccinated. They can also be responsive in taking the need for new safety measures themselves when necessary and appropriate, considering, for example, a local spike in cases and new variants like Delta that appear more contagious. And we all—whether authorities or not—can continue to voice support for the heroic work providers have been doing.”
Allison K. Hoffman – Professor of Law, Penn Law School – University of Pennsylvania

“They can demand state and federal action to take accountability for identifying which doctors and hospitals are needed and to make sure they are paid enough to remain—or to go—where they are needed.”
Alan Sager, Ph.D. – Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

What are the major issues facing healthcare in 2021?

“Certainly, number one is increasing Covid-19 vaccination…After vaccination, I think the issues continue to be what we refer to as the Quadruple Aim for health care – reduce cost, improve population health (quality of care), improve patient care experiences (so they are patient-centered, inclusive, equitable and embrace the diversity of our population) and improve the workforce experience. If we do not take care of health care workers – from our physicians, nurses, therapist, and other clinicians to our food service, transportation, and janitorial staff – we cannot sustainably achieve the other aims.”
Ingrid Nembhard, Ph.D., MS – Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

“The growth in healthcare prices, especially in hospital care, will continue to pose challenges to consumers. The second, and maybe obvious challenge, is COVID and the consequences of prolonged symptoms from a COVID infection, known as Long COVID. The long-term consequences of Long COVID are unknown but it could quickly increase the number of people with chronic conditions for years to come.”
Benjamin Ukert – Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University