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The Southern state plagued by diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease has America's WORST healthcare system. How does your state score?
This Southern state is battling scary rates of cancer deaths, diabetes, and other health woes as millions of residents lack basic health insurance and cannot get an appointment with a doctor.
Mississippians often say they languish in a 'health crisis.'
These problems came to a head on Monday when the Magnolia State was ranked as having the worst healthcare system in the country.
Researchers at WalletHub found that Mississippi has a scarily low numbers of people with health insurance and among the fewest dental clinics in the country.
Residents endure the highest rates of strokes, heart disease and infant mortality in the country, they found.
Idenia Sturdevant, a sufferer of diabetes, kidney failure, and high blood pressure, is one of many Mississippi residents to experience the state's longstanding healthcare problems
The Taborian Hospital lays in ruins in Mound Bayou, in the Mississippi Delta, where poverty and unemployment drive some of the highest rates of diabetes, obesity, and infant mortality
Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma, rounded out the worst five health systems.
Those seeking better care should head to Minnesota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Iowa, or New Hampshire, researchers said.
Cassandra Happe says tax season is tough
They looked at the cost of healthcare in each state, how easy it was to get an appointment, and the overall health of its population.
They used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Commonwealth Fund, the US Census Bureau and dozens of other government-led and private groups.
Cassandra Happe, who led the research, said the top performers managed to strike a balance between cost and quality.
'The best health care in the nation isn't helpful if it bankrupts the people who try to get it,' Happe said.
'And cheap health care isn't worth paying for if it provides subpar or ineffective treatment.'
Mississippi's subpar healthcare has long been a concern for residents.
Veteran journalist Peter Keith in May wrote that the state was in a 'life and death' crisis.
Lawmakers, he said, should help insurance costs so that people can access early-stage care before they get chronically sick.
Soon after, efforts to add an extra 200,000 Mississippians to the Medicaid rolls fizzled and died in the Republican-led legislature.
A team of nurses and physicians treats a patient at St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which is ranked as having the country's best healthcare system
Advocates of the change faced opposition from Gov. Tate Reeves, who refers to Medicaid as 'welfare,' and others.
This month, Magnolia Tribune columnist Sid Salter warned that staff shortages across rural Mississippi meant that seeing a carer was going to get harder in the coming years.
This was especially worrisome for Baby Boomers, who were getting sick but couldn't find a doctor, Salter said.
The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit, this month found that Mississippi ranks very poorly for women's health.
More women die in childbirth in Mississippi than anywhere else in America, they found.
They also have the highest rates of cervical and breast cancer deaths in the country.
All the while, the state's healthcare system is buckling under the strains of upgrading equipment and storing patient data amid revenue shortfalls.
The state's Singing River Health System, a major provider on the Gulf Coast, in May revealed that the personal data of some 900,000 patients had been stolen in a 2023 ransomware attack.
By and large, researchers found that Southern states had the worst healthcare systems in the nation.
Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, West Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida all ranked in the bottom 10.
States in the Northeast, Midwest and Mountain West generally scored at the top of the table.
Minnesota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Utah, Vermont, and Maine all ranked in the top 10.
Minnesota was praised for having lots of clinics offering quality care at the right price.
Minnesotans as a result have among the longest life expectancies in the US and typically get seen by carers in an emergency room within 16 minutes.
Rhode Island came second thanks to having high child vaccination rates, plenty of doctors and the lowest average out-of-pocket medical costs in the country.
'The best states for health care are those that make high-quality care affordable, on top of providing many options for doctors and making insurance easily accessible,' Happe added.