To explore and rank health care quality by state, MoneyGeek analyzed three core categories — health outcomes, cost and access to care — using health care data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and HealthData.gov. We assigned weights to each factor within these core categories to measure health care quality.
Outcome Factor Rank: Based on cumulative scores across the following factors:
- Infant mortality rate: The number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births
- Preventable death rate: Deaths that can be avoided through effective preventative health care and interventions per 100,000 residents
- Diabetes mortality rate: Deaths attributed to diabetes per 100,000 residents
- Obesity: Percentage of population considered obese
- Smoking rate: Percentage of adults who reported smoking
- Life expectancy: The average number of years a person can expect to live
- Suicide rates: Suicide deaths among persons age 12 and over per 100,000 residents
- New HIV cases per 100,000 residents over the age of 13
- Opioid-related hospital stay rate: Inpatient hospital stays involving opioid-related diagnoses per 100,000 residents
- Cost Factor Rank: Based on cumulative scores across the following factors:
- Health care spending as a percentage of state GDP: Government spending on health care and social assistance out of total state GDP
- State government spending on health care and social assistance per resident
- Average annual private health insurance premium costs
- Access Factor Rank: Based on cumulative score across the following factors:
- Number of hospital beds per 1,000 residents
- Number of primary care providers per 100,000 residents
- Primary care provider shortage areas (HPSAs) by state: Designations that identify areas of the U.S. experiencing health care professional shortages
- Percentage of population with access to any insurance versus just health insurance
- Ease of access to care at the doctor’s office or clinic using Medicare
- Ease of access to care at a specialist using Medicare
MoneyGeek used the following weightings in our analysis:
- Preventable death rate: Full weight
- Infant mortality rate: Full weight
- Life expectancy: Half weight
- Diabetes mortalities per 100,000 people: Half weight
- Obesity as a percentage of the population: Half weight
- Hospital inpatient stays involving opioid-related diagnoses per 100,00 people: Quarter weight
- Smoking rate among adults: Quarter weight
- Suicide deaths among persons ages 12 and older per 100,000 people: Quarter weight
- New HIV cases among persons ages 13 and older per 100,000 people: Quarter weight
- Annual health insurance costs: Full weight
- Health care spending as a percentage of state GDP: Half weight
- Health care spending as a share of GDP per resident: Half weight
- Percentage of population with health insurance: Full weight
- Number of hospital beds per 100,000 people: Half weight
- Adults who had a doctor’s office or clinic visit in the last 12 months and needed care, tests, or treatment who sometimes or never found it easy to get the care, tests, or treatment, Medicare fee-for-service: Quarter weight
- Adults who needed to see a specialist in the last 6 or 12 months who sometimes or never found it easy to see a specialist, Medicare fee-for-service: Quarter weight
- Primary care health professional shortage areas: % of need met to remove shortage designation: Quarter weight
- Number of primary care providers per 100,000 population: Quarter weight
SOURCES
This story originally appeared on MoneyGeek and has been independently reviewed to meet journalistic standards.
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