North Dakota near the middle among states with best child healthcare

(KXNET) — Keeping children healthy is as expensive as it is essential. Luckily, around 95% of children aged 0 to 18 have health insurance to protect them if they do get sick.

The bad news is that the high coverage rate hasn’t translated to lower health costs for parents, and the average amount workers pay toward employer-sponsored family coverage is over $6,100 per year.

Some families can find relief through Medicaid or through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). However, many people who don’t qualify for government assistance will still struggle, especially when their wallets are already hurting from high inflation.

Cost isn’t the only important factor for children’s health care, though. Other things that play a big role include the quality of the health care system and environmental factors like access to healthy food and fluoridated water.

It’s a different story in every state, though. Personal financial website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 33 key indicators of cost, quality and access to children’s health care. Their data set ranges from share of children aged 0 to 17 in excellent or very good health to pediatricians and family doctors per capita.

How does North Dakota fare? When the numbers were crunched, the Peace Garden State came in around the middle of the pack — #24 out of the states and the District of Columbia.

North Dakota scores high (#4 among states) on kids oral healthcare, #12 in kids nutrition, physical activity and obesity care, but #30 in overall kids healthcare and access to health care.

You can read the complete survey here, along with the methodology used to compile the rankings.

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