Best & Worst States for Health Care in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted medical care in countless ways, from postponing elective surgeries to moving many visits online. To shed some light on where people can get quality, affordable care during the current crisis, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2020’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 average monthly insurance premium to physicians per capita to share of insured population.

Health Care in California (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 22nd – Avg. Monthly Insurance Premium
• 46th – Hospital Beds per Capita
• 24th – Physicians per Capita
• 11th – Dentists per Capita
• 48th – Physician Medicare-Acceptance Rate
• 26th – % of Insured Adults
• 17th – % of Insured Children
• 51st – % of At-Risk Adults with No Routine Doctor Visit in Past Two Years
• 28th – % of Adults with No Dental Visit in Past Year
• 1st – % of Medical Residents Retained

Finding good health care at the right price point should be a priority for all Americans during the current health crisis, according to Adam McCann, financial writer for WalletHub. 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.

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.

For the full report, click here.