Unfortunately, access to healthcare is not equal across the country. A sick person is likely to face a different healthcare experience in one state versus someone with the same illness in another. While an average of 14.2% of people haven’t seen a doctor in the past 12 months, that figure is 18.2% in Georgia, compared to 7.3% in Hawaii. Having a regular doctor to visit is something many of us take for granted, but based on the data, many Americans don’t have a doctor to call their own. Families that don’t see a doctor regularly often don’t have access to a regular doctor. While 48% of children have a medical home, over 27% of children from uninsured families have a medical home.
Key findings:
- An average of 14.2% of people reported not seeing a doctor in the past 12 months due to cost.
- In July 2020, 53% of Americans reported negative mental health effects from the coronavirus, up from 32% in March, and 13.8 million Americans reported unmet needs for mental health care.
- Only 48.5% of children have a medical home. For children in uninsured homes, the rate of children with a medical home is 27.8%.
- Among adults, 22.8% reported not having a personal doctor. Many of the states with the highest rates of adults without a doctor were more rural, with historically less access to health care.
Uninsured and underinsured families often have few options when it comes to receiving regular healthcare. As we’ve analyzed four key factors that determine a state's access to healthcare, it’s clear many states under deliver on healthcare. Even with Medicaid expansion, in 39 states, there is still a void in accessibility.
Our research team at QuoteWizard analyzed Kaiser Family Foundation data on four different healthcare access factors to see which states had the best and worst access to healthcare. The four factors we looked at were:
- Adults without a personal doctor.
- Children with a medical home.
- Adults with unmet needs for mental health treatment.
- Adults who haven’t seen a doctor because of cost.
| Rank | State | No Personal Doctor | Children With Medical Home | Unmet Need for Mental Health | Not Seeing a Doctor Because of Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 15.0% | 51.2% | 3.1% | 7.3% |
| 2 | Vermont | 14.3% | 61.0% | 6.0% | 7.6% |
| 3 | Connecticut | 15.8% | 56.7% | 5.7% | 9.2% |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 13.3% | 60.1% | 6.7% | 8.8% |
| 5 | Maryland | 16.4% | 54.9% | 5.5% | 11.2% |
| 6 | New Hampshire | 13.8% | 58.5% | 6.5% | 10.6% |
| 7 | Iowa | 17.5% | 55.0% | 6.5% | 7.7% |
| 8 | Illinois | 18.0% | 51.7% | 5.0% | 11.5% |
| 9 | Maine | 14.8% | 58.0% | 6.1% | 11.8% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 22.3% | 59.5% | 5.4% | 11.8% |
| 11 | Minnesota | 24.2% | 52.2% | 4.6% | 10.0% |
| 12 | Ohio | 20.3% | 55.1% | 6.1% | 10.2% |
| 13 | New York | 19.6% | 48.9% | 5.0% | 11.0% |
| 14 | North Dakota | 27.4% | 54.6% | 5.3% | 9.3% |
| 15 | Michigan | 14.9% | 48.7% | 5.5% | 11.8% |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 17.4% | 46.2% | 6.0% | 9.9% |
| 17 | New Jersey | 20.4% | 48.2% | 4.5% | 13.1% |
| 18 | South Dakota | 25.3% | 49.6% | 5.5% | 10.5% |
| 19 | Rhode Island | 13.9% | 48.5% | 7.3% | 10.5% |
| 20 | Tennessee | 23.6% | 53.0% | 4.5% | 15.8% |
| 21 | Indiana | 20.2% | 54.9% | 6.9% | 12.2% |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | 15.1% | 41.7% | 6.1% | 9.4% |
| 23 | Virginia | 22.2% | 54.5% | 6.0% | 13.0% |
| 24 | Washington | 24.0% | 56.4% | 7.2% | 11.0% |
| 25 | North Carolina | 22.0% | 55.2% | 5.8% | 15.1% |
| 26 | Delaware | 18.3% | 45.2% | 6.3% | 10.6% |
| 27 | Kentucky | 19.0% | 52.1% | 6.9% | 12.6% |
| 28 | Montana | 27.2% | 48.2% | 5.8% | 10.1% |
| 29 | California | 25.3% | 44.3% | 5.2% | 11.9% |
| 30 | Alabama | 21.9% | 50.1% | 5.6% | 16.2% |
| 31 | Kansas | 22.3% | 50.3% | 7.2% | 12.1% |
| 32 | West Virginia | 18.6% | 49.7% | 6.5% | 14.9% |
| 33 | Louisiana | 23.3% | 47.1% | 5.6% | 14.8% |
| 34 | Missouri | 23.4% | 52.4% | 7.3% | 13.3% |
| 35 | Oregon | 25.0% | 53.1% | 8.9% | 12.6% |
| 36 | Wyoming | 32.2% | 46.6% | 4.7% | 13.2% |
| 37 | South Carolina | 23.9% | 49.1% | 5.8% | 15.8% |
| 38 | New Mexico | 31.1% | 42.0% | 4.6% | 13.0% |
| 39 | Colorado | 26.0% | 51.5% | 7.6% | 12.2% |
| 40 | Oklahoma | 24.2% | 45.6% | 5.5% | 14.9% |
| 41 | Mississippi | 26.0% | 47.9% | 5.4% | 17.6% |
| 42 | Alaska | 37.0% | 48.0% | 5.5% | 13.6% |
| 43 | Arkansas | 18.7% | 42.7% | 6.5% | 14.9% |
| 44 | Florida | 26.2% | 40.8% | 4.8% | 16.2% |
| 45 | Texas | 31.8% | 44.1% | 4.1% | 16.8% |
| 46 | Georgia | 28.2% | 45.9% | 5.1% | 18.2% |
| 47 | Utah | 27.4% | 50.1% | 9.0% | 13.0% |
| 48 | Arizona | 26.4% | 44.0% | 6.1% | 13.3% |
| 49 | Idaho | 28.9% | 44.9% | 7.3% | 15.0% |
| 50 | Nevada | 30.5% | 36.5% | 7.2% | 14.5% |
| Our rankings are a composite score between the four healthcare access figures we analyzed. States with the highest rankings were considered to have the best access to healthcare. | |||||
References:
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