Arizona Has Lowest Average Monthly Health-Insurance Premium

With politicians, media and taxpayers obviously concern about the possible collapse of individual insurance markets and Republicans are back to the drawing board on health care reform, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2017’s Best & Worst States for Health Care.

Arizona has the lowest average monthly health-insurance premium cost in the country. Overall Arizona ranks 32nd for best health care states.

In order to determine where Americans receive the highest-quality services at the best prices, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 35 key measures of health care cost, accessibility and outcome. The data set ranges from average monthly insurance premium to physicians per capita to share of insured population.

Best vs. Worst

• Arizona has the lowest average monthly health-insurance premium, $279, which is 2.7 times lower than in Alaska, registering the highest at $740.
• The District of Columbia has the highest number of professionally active physicians (per 100,000 residents), 1,008, which is 5.8 times higher than in Idaho, registering the lowest at 175.
• California has the highest retention rate for medical residents, 69.8 percent, which is 4.5 times higher than in the District of Columbia, registering the lowest at 15.4 percent.
• New Hampshire has the lowest number of infant mortalities (per 1,000 live births), four, which is 2.3 times lower than in Mississippi, registering the highest at nine.
• Minnesota has the lowest share of adults who have had a stroke, 1.9 percent, which is 2.3 times lower than in Alabama, registering the highest at 4.3 percent.
• West Virginia has the lowest share of at-risk adults without a routine doctor visit in the past two years, 8.4 percent, which is two times lower than in Utah, registering the highest at 17.2 percent.

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, click here.