Raising a child in America is extremely expensive, costing the average parent over $230k, and health care accounts for a big chunk of the bill. And while around 95% of children ages 0-18 have health insurance, the high coverage rate hasn’t translated to lower health costs for parents. For example, out of pocket costs for patients increased by 2.5% during 2017 alone, and total spending for individuals aged 0-18 jumped 19.9% between 2013 and 2017.
But it’s a different story in every state. WalletHub therefore compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 33 key indicators of cost, quality and access to children’s health care. Our data set ranges from share of children aged 0 to 17 years in excellent or very good health to pediatricians and family doctors per capita. Read on for our findings, expert insight from a panel of researchers and a full description of our methodology.
