Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
A new study abstracted here shows that costs vary up to 50% by state with little impact on quality.
Some key points:
Some key points:
- residents of Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Pennsylvania had the highest spending, with an average of $6,345 per capita.
- Utah, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada—had an average of only $4,244 per person.
- the higher-spending states generally had the highest concentration of physicians, the highest incomes and the smallest percentages of uninsured
- geographic differences in health care spending grew in 1991-1998 and decreased in 1998-2004. They attributed this change to managed care plans’ influence
- higher spending does not appear to be related to better health care quality [there was not enough information presented for me to know the validity of this claim - the socioeconomic variables can throw such claims off as to cause and effect]