Kentucky ranked 43rd in health care

The average American spends nearly $14,600 per year on personal health care, according to estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The personal-finance website recently released its ranking of the best and worst states for health care in 2025, and Kentucky could use some improvement with a ranking of 43rd with a score of 47.95.

"Health care has two crucial components, cost and quality," said Chip Lupo, an analyst with WalletHub. "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. Therefore, the best states for health care are those that make high-quality care affordable, on top of providing many options for doctors and making insurance easily accessible."

To determine its findings, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 44 key measures of health care cost, accessibility, and outcome. The data set ranged from the average monthly insurance premium to physicians per capita to the share of insured population.

Kentucky ranked 19th in the average monthly insurance premium, 35th in physicians per capita, 51st in dentists per capita ( three times difference between the District of Columbia, which tied for first with Colorado and Connecticut), 14th in the percentage of insured adults, 21st in the percentage of insured children, 43rd in the percentage of adults with no dental visits in the past year, and 24th in the percentage of medical residents retained. The Bluegrass State ranked 43rd in cost, 10th in access, and 46th in outcomes. Kentucky was the lowest state with the percentage of at-risk adults with no routine doctor visit in the past two years, right behind West Virginia.

Kentucky also ranked 51st in cancer rate, and 50th in stroke and heart disease rate.

Finding good health care at the right price point should be a priority for everyone, but it's not that easy. Americans need affordable, quality health care; the COVID-19 pandemic made that extremely apparent. According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. lags behind several other wealthy nations on several measures, including health coverage, life expectancy and disease burden, which measures longevity and quality of life.

New Hampshire is the best state, scoring 67.49, followed by Rhode Island (65.58), Minnesota (64.21), Iowa (64.19), Massachusetts (64.15), Maine (61.67), Colorado (61.58), North Dakota (61.48), Wisconsin (60.93), and South Dakota (60.85).

Mississippi ranked dead last with a score of 43.15, with Alaska, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee among the worst states.

New Hampshire residents have the lowest average monthly health insurance premium at around $470. Rhode Island residents have the lowest out-of-pocket medical spending at just 5.6% of their income, while 94% of adults and 97% have health insurance. Minnesota as the 13th-lowest average out-of-pocket medical spending, eighth-lowest average monthly insurance premium, and the eighth-best public hospital system.

According to Charles C. Yang, Ph.D., Professor and Kaye Insurance Fellow, Department of Finance at Florida Atlantic University College of Business, there are several major issues facing health care in the United States, with two significant challenges being the inefficiencies and undue complexity of the U.S. healthcare system.

"Collaboration among stakeholders such as consumers, insurers, regulators, and policymakers are essential to lowering medical costs," Yang said. "This involves three main aspects: reducing the use and cost of medical services and tackling healthcare fraud. Reducing utilization entails minimizing unnecessary medical procedures. Additionally, efforts should focus on establishing fair in-network pricing and eliminating out-of-network surcharges."

He added that for greater cost efficiency, health insurance coverage structures should align with models similar to Medicaid or group insurance.

"Another goal is to streamline the healthcare system," he said. "Currently, there are multiple types of health plans like HMO, PPO, POS, and EPO. Simplifying to just POS could suffice. Similarly, various health-related accounts exist such as health savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts (FSA), and health reimbursement arrangements (HRA). Streamlining to primarily HSA (with some adjustments) may be sufficient."

To view the entire report, visit https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-health-care/23457