12 Best States for Health Care: 2024

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The fact that Americans need affordable, quality health care became abundantly clear in the wake of the pandemic, but finding good health care at the right price point is not easy for everyone, according to a new report from WalletHub, a personal finance website.

The most recent estimate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services puts the average American’s outlay on personal health care at nearly $13,500 per year. That is a daunting figure for many people who are already struggling financially because of inflation and debt.

Moreover, higher medical costs do not necessarily translate to better results, the report said. Research by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that the U.S. lags behind several other rich nations in health care quality.

“Health care has two crucial components, cost and quality,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said in a statement. “The best health care in the nation isn’t helpful if it bankrupts the people who try to get it, and cheap health care isn’t worth paying for if it provides subpar or ineffective treatment.”

Happe noted that the best states for health care not only make high-quality care affordable, but also provide many options for doctors and make insurance easily accessible.

To determine where Americans receive the best and worst health care, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia these dimensions:

Cost, including cost of medical visit, average hospital expenses per inpatient day at community hospitals and cost of dental visit
Access, including quality of public hospital system; physicians, geriatricians and nurse practitioners per capita; and Medicare-certified rural health clinics per rural population
Outcomes, including life expectancy; maternal, infant and child mortality rates; share of adults with Type 2 diabetes; and share of nonimmunized children

Researchers evaluated those dimensions using 44 relevant metrics, and graded each one on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the best health care at the most reasonable cost.

See the gallery for the 12 best states for health care, according to WalletHub.

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