States rated for health-care access, affordability and treatment; prevention, healthy lives, hospital use

"If the nation’s worst state health systems performed as well as the best, nearly 86,000 fewer people would die prematurely each year," with most of those unnecessary deaths occurring in rural Southern states, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that promotes improved health care for vulnerable and underserved populations, Niraj Chokshi reports for The Washington Post. "Not only would thousands of premature deaths be prevented, the report found, but if states provided vulnerable populations with the same quality of health care their more-advantaged residents receive, some 33,000 more infants would live to see their first birthday."  

The report was based on access and affordability of health care, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospitalizations, and healthy lives, Chokshi writes. Mississippi ranked last, finishing near the bottom in every category. Alabama, which was ranked 48th, and Louisiana and Oklahoma, which tied for 49th, also finished near the bottom in every category. Arkansas was 47th, Kentucky 46th, Georgia 45th, Missouri 44th, Florida 43rd, Nevada and West Virginia tied for 41st and Tennessee was 40th. Hawaii is at the top of the list, followed by Wisconsin, Vermont, Minnesota and Massachusetts. (Read more) (Commonwealth Fund graphic)