In preparation for Every Kid Healthy Week, which kicks off on April 22, WalletHub has released findings from a recent report on 2019’s Best and Worst States for Children's Health Care.
In preparation for Every Kid Healthy Week, which kicks off on April 22, WalletHub has released findings from a recent report on 2019’s Best and Worst States for Children’s Health Care.
Raising a child in the United States can be costly—nearly $235,000, in fact—and healthcare expenses can contribute to much of the total costs. The report compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) across more than 30 indicators of cost, quality, and access to children’s healthcare.
The data set included share of children aged 0 to 17 in excellent or very good health, pediatricians and family doctors per capita, infant death rate, cost of doctor’s visit, healthy food access, fast food restaurants per capita, and determinants for oral health.
Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the best healthcare for children. The researchers then determined each state and DC’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall scores and used the final number to rank the findings.
Source: WalletHub
1. Vermont, 73.40
2. DC, 64.09
3. Massachusetts, 61.98
4. Connecticut, 61.84
5. New York, 60.15
Overall, the top 5 best states for children’s healthcare included the following:
47. Arkansas, 40.41
48. Mississippi, 37.80
49. Texas, 37.02
50. Louisiana, 35.86
51. Nevada, 35.60
Conversely, the top 5 worst states for children’s healthcare were:
The findings showed that Massachusetts had the lowest share of uninsured children aged 0 to 19 (1.40%), which is 7.9 times lower than in Texas, which had the highest share of uninsured children (11%). Additionally, Minnesota had the lowest share of obese children aged 10 to 17 (7.60%), which is 3.4 times lower than the highest, Mississippi (26%).
Importantly, some of the lowest infant death rates in the country were found in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California, while the highest infant death rates were in Delaware, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Researchers also evaluated each state to determine the oral health of children. This was found by rating each individual state on the following: the share of children aged 1 to 17 with excellent or very good teeth, the share of children aged 0 to 17 lacking access to fluoridated water, the presence of a state oral health plan, dental treatment costs, and dentists per capita, among other factors.
Considering these factors, the report noted that New Hampshire, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, and Iowa had the highest percentage of children with excellent or very good teeth, while Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Missouri, and Mississippi had the lowest percentage.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More