Texas posted the seventh-poorest showing among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in a new WalletHub study that ranked health care quality based on criteria such as medical visit costs, life expectancy and access.
The Lone Star State earned a total score of 48.49 in the study by the personal finances website, with the maximum score being 100. In comparison, No. 1 Minnesota was given a score of 64.96 in the analysis, which looked at three main categories: cost, access and outcomes.
Within these categories, researchers measured 44 different health-related criteria, such as percentages of uninsured. Texas ranked 48th on cost, 49th on access and 35th on health outcomes.
Texas finished last in the metrics of the share of insured adults aged 19 to 64 and the share of insured children under 18, the study found. And Texas came in 50th in the metric of the share of adults who did not visit a dentist over the past year.
The average U.S. resident has $12,914 in health expenses annually, according to an estimate by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The good news is that the growth of health care costs has slowed in recent years, the report says.
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State Health Care System Rankings in 2023