10 Best States for Health Care in 2021

  The pandemic has confronted the U.S. health care system with its most challenging test in the past century. Some states are better positioned than others to meet these challenges, according to a recent analysis from MoneyRates.com. Indeed, the analysis found stark contrasts between states on matters such as whether a resident had health insurance, child immunization and infant mortality, the ratio of doctors to a state's population and the average health insurance premium. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Family Foundation, MoneyRates identified the best states for health care by ranking each one's performance in eight categories, then basing the overall rankings on the average of rankings across all categories. MoneyRates also classified state-by-state conditions in each category as one might describe a person's health:

• Robust: the best 20%
• Healthy: the next 20%
• Average: the middle 20%
• Frail: the next 20%
• Critical condition: the bottom 20%

See the gallery above for the 10 best states for health care in 2021. (Photo of nurse and patient from Shutterstock)