Southern states have the highest number of adults who skip care due to cost and some of the highest rates of uninsured people, a new analysis by NiceRx found.
The analysis relied on figures from Data USA, a collaborative endeavor between MIT Media Labs, Deloitte and data visualization startup Datawheel, which compiles publicly available data in one place.
Through Data USA, NiceRx tracked each state and state capital’s population of uninsured, as well as the share of adults that had not been to the doctor in the past year due to costs.
"No one should ever have to sacrifice professional health care due to cost," Navin Khosla, a medical writer at NiceRx, said in a statement. "If you often avoid seeing your doctor because of the financial burden, then this emphasizes the importance of having the correct health insurance cover. Insurance can support you in times of need and helps reduce financial stresses associated with health care."
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Here are the top five states with the highest share of insured people, with shares of the insured at least 95% of the population or higher:
- Massachusetts
- Hawaii
- Minnesota
- Vermont
- Rhode Island
Here are the top five states with the highest share of uninsured people, with shares at least 12% or higher:
- Texas
- Oklahoma
- Alaska
- Georgia
- Florida
And here are the top five states with the most people avoiding the doctor due to cost, with shares at least 16% or higher:
- Mississippi
- Texas
- Louisiana
- Florida
- Georgia
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Every state except two (Alaska, South Dakota) had higher rates of adults who had not gone to the doctor than the corresponding share of people without insurance. Eleven states had more than 10% of their population without insurance, while the vast majority of states—42 of them—had a share of more than 10% of adults who hadn’t seen a doctor.
This may suggest that a good portion of Americans, even those who have insurance, still consider the cost of a doctor visit to be prohibitive, according to the study.