Have you had a routine doctor visit in the past 2 years? | WalletHub
Aug. 1. With the average American spending more than $12,900 per year on personal health care, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2023’s Best & Worst States for Health Care and North Carolina didn’t do so awesomely well.
NC came in at No. 42 among 50 states (and Washington DC) in health care as determined by best prices and high-quality services.
Health Care in North Carolina (1=Best; 25=Avg.)
31st – Avg. Monthly Insurance Premium
43rd – Hospital Beds per Capita
27th – Physicians per Capita
23rd – Dentists per Capita
43rd – % of Insured Adults
34th – % of Insured Children
28th – % of Adults with No Dental Visit in Past Year
34th – % of Medical Residents Retained
Perspective
Detail: According to WalletHub, North Carolina was second-worst in the whole country when it came to at-risk adults who had not seen a doctor for a routine visit during the past two years. [Chart]
We all need affordable, quality health care – and that’s extremely apparent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest public health crisis in over a century.
But finding good health care at the right price point is not so easy. The average American spends $12,914 per year on personal health care, according to the most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Duke University expert
Prevention, of course, goes a long way.
David Anderson, research associate at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, says the best way to control health care expenses for a family is to engage in routine and regular preventive care such as vaccinations as well as reasonable risk mitigation of daily risks such as wearing a seat belt or putting on a helmet while bike riding.
Pro Tip
If you have a “shoppable” medical need, such as an elective surgery, engaging with your insurance is critical, Anderson says. This means making sure all of your doctors and hospitals are IN NETWORK, and if you have price comparison tools between different hospitals, using those tools. “There are often wildly different prices for the same service from the same insurer between two hospitals in the same town,” Anderson says.
Quotable
“There are several substantial issues in US healthcare at this time. The largest is COVID and its after-effects. We know that individuals are at risk of long-term COVID, and we are not sure what the long-term treatment and prognosis are for individuals with Long COVID,” Anderson says.
