Massachusetts is the best state in the nation and the No. 2 state for healthcare, according to U.S. News & World Report's inaugural Best States rankings released Tuesday. The publication evaluated all 50 states using more than 60 metrics and thousands of data points, including categories such as education, infrastructure, economy and healthcare.
To rank states in healthcare, U.S. News examined healthcare access (including adults and children who go without medical care), public health (including obesity, smoking, suicide and mental health) and healthcare quality (hospital readmission rates, Medicare plan ratings and nursing home quality) metrics using data from the federal government. Each of the three sub-elements were weighted equally to determine the overall healthcare ranking.
"Higher performing states have [made] huge efforts over time to reform or improve their healthcare system, and government plays a very important leadership in that," said Douglas McCarthy, senior research director of the Commonwealth Fund. "The stakeholders are very engaged and created a culture of collaboration. It's really about bringing everyone to the table."
The top 10 best states for healthcare are:
1. Hawaii
2. Massachusetts
3. Minnesota
4. New Hampshire
5. Iowa
6. Vermont
7. Rhode Island
8. New Jersey
9. Washington
10. California
U.S. News also ranked states in the three sub-elements that went into the overall ranking for healthcare. Here are the top five states for each of the sub-elements for healthcare (access, quality and public health).
Best states for healthcare access
1. Massachusetts
2. Hawaii
3. Vermont
4. Connecticut
5. Iowa
Best states for healthcare quality
1. Alaska
2. Maine
3. Hawaii
4. New Hampshire
5. Colorado
Best states for public health
1. Hawaii
2. New Jersey
3. California
4. New York
5. Massachusetts
Click here to read the full methodology.