Hawaii tops list of 10 best states for healthcare
Hawaii ranked first in healthcare access, second in quality and third in public health, enough to place it atop this year's rankings.
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Hawaii ranks number one overall among all U.S. states when it comes to healthcare, according to new rankings by U.S. News and World Report.
The media company examined data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources to determine how states ranked in areas such as care quality, access and public health infrastructure.
At the top of the heap, Hawaii ranked first in healthcare access, second in quality and third in public health. The percentage of the Hawaiian population without health insurance was just 4.8%, compared to a national average of 11.3%. Its obesity rate is 26.9% lower than the 33.9% national average, and last year it saw 1,623 preventable hospital admissions per 100,000 Medicare patients, compared to a national average of 2,765.
Rounding out the top 10 states, in order, are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, Maryland, New York, Delaware and Washington.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
U.S. News also broke down the states by how they ranked in each of the healthcare subcategories.
The top five states for healthcare access, descending order, are Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The top five states for healthcare quality are Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. For public health, the top five states are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, California and New York.
Of course, since U.S. News ranked all 50 states, a bottom 10 also emerged. The worst state for healthcare overall was Mississippi, which ranked 48th in quality, 49th in access and 46th in public health. Its population without health insurance is 16.4% (compared to the 11.3% national average), and, at 39.7%, the obesity rate is almost six percentage points higher than the national average. Preventable hospital admissions clocked in at 3,387 per 100,000 Medicare patients, almost 600 above the national average.
States rounding out the bottom 10 include Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, South Dakota, Tennessee and Indiana.
THE LARGER TREND
The U.S. News rankings are the second report in just a few days detailing various healthcare-related disparities between states.
A recent Robert Wood Johnson analysis found significant variation among states when it comes to the ongoing Medicaid disenrollment process. While enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) declined by nine million people from April to November 2023, eight states had Medicaid disenrollments surpassing 100% of projected net disenrollments.
Nationwide, aggregate net disenrollment as of November 2023 was at 60.5% of projected total disenrollment throughout the unwinding. The eight states exceeding 100% are Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
