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Tuesday, Mar. 4, 2025

Is Oklahoma’s health care system ranked among the lowest in the nation?

Matthew Yim, Oklahoma Watch
yes

Oklahoma’s health care system is ranked among the worst according to US News and The Commonwealth Fund. Both outlets created their rankings by using government and publicly available data from 2019 to 2024.

US News’s 2024 review places Oklahoma 49th out of 50 states, reflecting the state’s low rankings along the metrics of health care access, health care quality, and public health respectively. The outlet found Oklahoma’s population without health insurance, number of preventable hospital admissions, and obesity rate to be 5.5%, 111%, and 6.4% higher than the national numbers.

The Commonwealth Fund’s 2023 review also ranks Oklahoma at 49th. In addition to uninsured adults, the outlet found the number of premature avoidable deaths and potentially avoidable emergency department visits among senior Medicare beneficiaries in Oklahoma to be consistently higher than the national average. The review cites the COVID-19 pandemic as impacting health care system performances nationwide.

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