Health Insurance Articles
How Health Insurance Coverage Laws Vary By State
2011-01-16
Health insurance coverage laws are left up to each individual state, meaning some state insurance laws are more comprehensive than others. The differing state insurance laws have resulted in varying levels of health care accessibility. This is because access to health care is directly related to wealth and affordability of health care coverage. However, it is difficult to rate health insurance coverage and health care systems; a variety of factors must be taken into consideration as evaluations take place. Two significant studies have recently brought certain states into the spotlight.
The Commonwealth Fund Study
The Commonwealth Fund, an independent association concerned with health care availability and standards, has recently conducted a study evaluating the health care systems of the states of the USA. This study resulted in the following observations:
States with the Best Health Care
Hawaii was the first state to require employers to provide health insurance coverage for all employees, and interestingly enough, Hawaii is considered the state that provides the best health care options to its residents. The Commonwealth Fund rates Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa as the states with the best health care conditions.
States with the Worst Health Care
According to the Commonwealth Fundy Study, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma are the states with the worst health care systems. Less than half of Texan companies offer health insurance coverage plans to their employees, and only 45% of Arkansas businesses provide health insurance options for their employees. These states have very "hands off" policies regarding health care, meaning they allow businesses to decide if they will or won't offer health insurance coverage to employees, and they also allow health insurance companies to turn down a higher percentage of applicants for a wider range of reasons.
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council
The SBEC recently conducted a similar study, evaluating state health care opportunities by considering state insurance laws, accessibility to health care and health care costliness. The study ranked the best and worst states as follows:
States with the Worst Health Care
The SBEC ranked Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Washington and Massachusetts as the costliest and least health-care friendly states, citing
States with the Best Health Care
The SBEC declared Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, Utah and Iowa to have the best health care programs, based on state regulations and costliness of programs.
As you can see, there are so many factors to consider when evaluating health care systems that you may wish to investigate your specific situation before making a decision about moving to a new state. Will your employer offer health insurance coverage options? Does the state have a good program; should your employer fail to offer coverage?
