Poor healthcare exists in the United States and there are 13 states to prove it (*). The map at the left is from the Commonwealth Fund and it is an aggregate of many measures of healthcare quality. Mississippi is the worst — perhaps the State should be listed as a 3rd world country!
So just to make the point a little sharper here is the list of States in the bottom quartile and the Governors.
| State | Governor | Party |
| Alabama | Robert Bentley | R |
| Arkansas | Asa Hutchinson ** | R |
| Illinois | Bruce Rauner** | R |
| Indiana | Mike Pence | R |
| Kentucky | Steve Beshear | D |
| Louisianna | Bobby Jindal | R |
| Mississippi | Phil Bryant | R |
| Missouri | Jay Nixon | D |
| Ohio | John Kasich | R |
| Oklahoma | Mary Fallin | R |
| S. Carolina | Nikki Haley | R |
| Tennessee | Bill Haslam | R |
| W. Virginia | Earl Tomblin | D |
So, how to look at the data? Do the above States just have a lot of health problems or just ineffective State government. Sadly, the answer is both.
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*D.C. Radley, D. McCarthy, J.A. Lippa, S.L. Hayes, and C. Schoen, Results from a Scorecard on State Health System Performance, 2014, The Commonwealth Fund, April 2014.
** New Governors just elected for 2015
