Why Does Utah Rank So High in Health Care?

Pete CodellaAccolades

Utah holds a unique distinction among U.S. states: It has the healthiest population and the lowest per-capita health care costs, according to some measures. A grid analysis of health status against expenditures, based on 2009 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and 2013 data from the United Health Foundation, puts Utah in the sweet spot: the upper right quadrant. (See graph below.) Its per-capita costs are just over half those of equally healthy Massachusetts ($5,013 vs. $9,278), which occupies the most expensive quadrant, the lower right.