While health care outcomes in Wisconsin place it among the best in the country, the costs associated with receiving health care in the state are among the worst, according to a recent analysis by WalletHub.
The study ranked Wisconsin 23rd overall in the U.S. for its health care, based on metrics including doctor visits costs, insurance premiums, hospital quality, physicians per capita and emergency room wait times.
Wisconsin ranked 9th in the nation for its health care outcomes, based on mortality rates among infants, children and pregnant women; life expectancy; cancer and disease rates and hospital readmission rates. The states with the best health care outcomes were Vermont at No. 1, followed by Massachusetts, Colorado, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Utah, Connecticut and Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the state ranked 47th for health care costs, which included the cost of medical and dental visits, average monthly insurance premiums, the share of high out-of-pocket medical spending and share of adults who don’t visit the doctor due to cost.
Wisconsin ranked 13th for its health care accessibility, which took into account the quality of public hospital systems, hospital beds per capita, average emergency room wait times, physicians per capita, and the acceptance rates of Medicaid and Medicare among physicians.
According to the study, the states with the best health care systems based on cost, outcomes and accessibility were: Vermont at No. 1, followed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Colorado, District of Columbia, Iowa and Maryland.
