In the United States, we acknowledge one unfortunate fact about health care: cost does not equate to quality. Prices for medical procedures vary widely by provider, by insurance carrier, by site of administration, and in some cases, by state. Utilizing data from the 2016 Truven Markescan Database, The Commonwealth Fund has put together an interactive tool to illuminate the differences in state health care spending--both for Medicare and employer-sponsored health plans. Related: Employees' health care spending up, usage down There is, of course, no correlation between health care spending and outcomes. Hawaii, for example, often recognized as one of the healthiest states in the country, spends the second least on health care per employee, whereas many of its peers in the lowest-10 include many states with poor health scorecards. One notable trend is the inverse relationship between Medicare spending and employer dollars--overall, the more spent per employee through an employer's plan, the less spent per Medicare beneficiary, and vice-versa. Again, Hawaii stands out as a notable exception, spending 34 percent less than the median on Medicare beneficiaries. Want to know more about how your state spends health care dollars? Break it down by care setting, hospital referral region or any number of factors contributing to quality with The Commonwealth Fund's interactive tool. Want to know more about how health care dollars are spent in the U.S.?  

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