Best and worst states for healthcare REVEALED: Oklahoma, West Virginia are worst

If you need to go to the ER or have surgery, you probably don’t want to be in Oklahoma.

The state ranks worst for health care next to Mississippi and West Virginiaaccording to a report by the leftist Commonwealth Fund.

Covering 2021, the report looked at seven key measures, including affordability, quality of services and access. The researchers also considered reproductive care by looking at infant and maternal mortality rates by state — though the report was done before Roe V Wade was overturned, limiting access to abortion for millions.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts, Hawaii and New Hampshire were among the top three states for health care by the criteria.

The map above shows states ranked by their health care systems based on a Commonwealth Fund report. The state-assigned number one had the best healthcare system, while those ranked number 51 had the worst

The chart above shows the proportion of people without health insurance by state. It also highlights the states that have and have not expanded Medicaid to make insurance more accessible

Researchers said the Covid pandemic had affected the rankings as the virus had pushed many hospitals to a “breaking point.”

Other factors, such as a lack of health insurance and higher poverty rates in some states, also played a role.

The report covered the period up to the end of 2021, when Roe v. Wade was still in effect and abortion was not restricted.

Rounding out the bottom five were Texas and Arkansas.

Of the ten states at the bottom of the ranking, nine were led by the Republicans, with one of them – Louisiana – splitting control.

The states at the bottom of the table were among those hardest hit by Covid, the report said.

Each saw an increase in the premature death rate, or the number of deaths before age 75 that could normally have been prevented by public health measures or easier access to health care.

This was largely driven by Covid, although there was also an increase in deaths from substance abuse, diabetes and cancer.

The states at the bottom of the ranking also had a higher percentage of residents without health insurance.

The federal government expanded health insurance coverage during the pandemic, but coverage remained low in some states. In Texas, which had the lowest health coverage in the country, nearly one in four had no health insurance.

For the top states, these had stronger healthcare systems at the start of the pandemic, the report said, better able to respond to the emergency.

More residents of these states were covered by health insurance.

In their conclusion, the report’s authors said, “Overall, states that entered the pandemic with stronger healthcare systems fared better.

“The Covid pandemic pushed the U.S. healthcare system to its limits, widening the persistent divide between states as they grappled with the coronavirus and its emerging variants.”

To help improve US health care, they urged states to create pandemic preparedness plans for the next disease outbreak.

They also called on lawmakers to make health insurance more accessible, as well as addiction treatment.