2020’s Best & Worst States for Health Care

From Wallet Hub, Aug 3, 2020

Americans need affordable, quality health care more than ever this year as we face the COVID-19 pandemic. State healthcare systems need to care for and quarantine those who contract the virus while making sure not to neglect the regular health care needs of their residents. The pandemic has already disrupted medical care in so many ways, from postponing elective surgeries to moving many doctor visits entirely online.

Finding good health care at the right price point should be a priority for all Americans during the current health crisis. However, even without any extra costs that might arise from the coronavirus pandemic, the average American spends more than $11,000 per year on personal health care, according to the most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That’s a daunting statistic considering that so many Americans are out of work or making less money than usual this year.

In addition, while health care in the U.S. is expensive, higher medical costs don’t necessarily translate to better results. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. lags behind several other wealthy nations on several measures, such as health coverage, life expectancy and disease burden, which measures longevity and quality of life. However, the U.S. has improved in giving more healthcare access for people in worse health, and healthcare cost growth has slowed somewhat.

Conditions aren’t uniform across the U.S., though. To determine where Americans receive the best and worst health care, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 44 measures of cost, accessibility and outcome….

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