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States With the Best & Worst Health Care in 2024 – WalletHub Study

July 29, 2024

Americans need affordable, quality health care – and that’s extremely apparent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest public health crisis in over a century. Finding good health care at the right price point should be a priority for everyone, but it’s unfortunately not so easy. The average American spends nearly $13,500 per year on personal health care, according to the most recent estimate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That’s a daunting statistic considering that many people are already struggling financially due to inflation and lots of debt.

In addition, while health care in the U.S. is expensive, higher medical costs don’t necessarily translate to better results. According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. lags behind several other wealthy nations in health care quality.

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 outcomes.

States with Best Health Care Systems

Overall Rank  State Total Score  Cost Rank  Access Rank  Outcomes Rank 
1 Minnesota 67.38 2 6 11
2 Rhode Island 67.00 17 1 6
3 South Dakota 65.47 5 2 19
4 Iowa 65.09 1 30 12
5 New Hampshire 64.08 15 14 8
6 Massachusetts 64.05 34 7 2
7 Utah 63.79 20 34 1
8 Vermont 63.64 40 3 3
9 Maine 63.60 24 4 15
10 Colorado 62.60 36 9 7
11 North Dakota 62.57 23 8 16
12 Hawaii 62.49 28 24 4
13 Pennsylvania 62.28 6 18 20
14 Michigan 61.95 4 31 17
15 Kansas 61.39 9 12 25
16 Wisconsin 61.04 37 5 13
17 Maryland 60.39 11 23 21
18 Montana 60.09 16 15 26
19 Nebraska 60.02 26 13 22
20 Missouri 59.38 7 11 37
21 Virginia 58.02 8 48 23
22 Indiana 57.69 10 26 35
23 Idaho 57.65 31 37 14
24 Connecticut 57.65 48 16 9
25 New Jersey 56.57 27 19 31
26 Ohio 56.40 12 33 33
27 Oregon 55.96 45 35 10
28 Illinois 55.91 38 22 28
29 Kentucky 55.57 3 10 49
30 Washington 55.32 49 45 5
31 Delaware 55.24 39 28 27
32 California 54.66 42 38 18
33 Nevada 53.89 13 43 40
34 Arizona 53.66 22 46 36
35 South Carolina 53.21 29 36 39
36 New Mexico 53.03 19 41 41
37 Wyoming 52.99 47 27 29
38 New York 52.97 50 29 24
39 District of Columbia 51.92 46 25 34
40 Tennessee 50.95 14 40 45
41 North Carolina 50.82 43 47 30
42 Florida 50.77 35 42 42
43 Louisiana 50.38 33 21 46
44 Arkansas 49.48 18 32 50
45 Texas 49.39 41 49 38
46 Alaska 49.13 51 19 32
47 Oklahoma 48.93 30 44 44
48 Georgia 48.61 32 51 43
49 West Virginia 48.46 44 17 48
50 Alabama 48.19 21 50 47
51 Mississippi 46.01 25 39 51

Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

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