The 10 worst states for health care in 2026

More to read: The 10 best states for health care in 2026

The 10 states at the bottom of WalletHub's 2026 health care ranking share a problem that shows up on a practice's schedule long before it shows up in a report. Coverage is thinner. Workforce is thinner. And the outcomes measures that increasingly drive value-based contract benchmarks are the worst in the country.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 44 measures of cost, access and outcomes for its 2026 report, published July 27, using data collected as of June 29. Each of the three categories carries equal weight, 33.33 points out of a 100-point score.

Eight of the bottom 10 are in the South, and the two that aren’t landed there for very different reasons.

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