2015’s Best and Worst States for Doctors

From Wallet Hub March 30, 2015

Doctors are among the most highly paid, educated and celebrated professions in the United States. The profession has also been undergoing intense change in recent years, with the Affordable Care Act, the rise of branded hospital networks, the impending retirement of Baby Boomers and an increasingly litigious society all complicating the lives of doctors and providing pause to potential white-coats.

With that in mind, the personal finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best & Worst States for Doctors in 2015. The report uses 12 key metrics – ranging from average annual wages and salary disparities to patient population size and state medical board punitiveness to rank each of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. A few main findings are included below.

Hawaii Ranks 38th Overall -- 37th for 'Opportunity and Competition' and 34th for 'Work Environment'

• Surgeons in Kansas make twice as much as those in Connecticut, when average annual wages are adjusted for cost of living.
   
• The District of Columbia has ten-times as many physicians per capita as Arizona. D.C. is also projected to have six-times as many doctors per capita as Mississippi in 2022.
   
• By 2030, in Florida the percentage of people age 65+ will be twice as high as in Utah.
   
• Wyoming’s state medical board is twice as punitive as South Carolina’s.
   
• The amount of malpractice award payouts per capita in New York is 35-times higher than that in North Dakota. As a result, malpractice liability insurance rates in New York are six-times higher than in Wisconsin.