With workers paying an average of nearly $6,300 per year toward employer-sponsored family coverage and Every Kid Healthy Week kicking off on April 21, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s Best & Worst States for Children’s Health Care, as well as expert commentary.
In order to determine which states offer the most cost-effective and highest-quality health care for children, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 33 key metrics. The data set ranges from the share of children aged 0 to 17 in excellent or very good health to pediatricians and family doctors per capita.
Children’s Health Care in Arizona (1=Best; 25=Avg.):
- Overall Rank: 46th
- 50th – % of Children in Excellent/Very Good Health
- 49th – % of Uninsured Children
- 33rd – Infant-Death Rate
- 31st – % of Children with Unaffordable Medical Bills
- 15th – % of Overweight Children
- 38th – % of Obese Children
- 33rd – % of Children with Excellent/Very Good Teeth
- 40th – % of Children 19 to 35 Months Old with All Recommended Vaccines
For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-for-child-health/34455
Expert Commentary
What are the most important steps parents can take to help their children grow up healthy?
“Parents should model, support and nurture kindness and compassion. We know that developing a secure attachment relationship and sustaining that positive base throughout their children’s lives are important. Giving their children opportunities to practice kindness and compassion in the home towards family members (for example, giving them household chores and responsibilities and making them responsible for taking care of each other) can help them develop these positive social habits. Children who are kind and compassionate tend to have greater ability to regulate their emotions, are more adept at reasoning, create more positive interpersonal relationships with others, do better at school, and are less inclined to engage in deviant behaviors and affiliate with deviant others. Protecting their children from high risk and dangers are also important and that requires engagement, involvement, and monitoring. This also involves setting boundaries and consistent firm parental expectations and demands. Balancing these firm expectations and rules with acknowledging and rewarding their child’s positive behaviors and accomplishments can help reduce the likelihood of becoming overcontrolling and rigid.”
Gustavo Carlo – Professor; Director, Cultural Resiliency and Learning Center, University of California, Irvine
“Parents and other caregivers play incredibly important roles in modeling and teaching choices that promote lifelong healthy habits. These include encouraging physical activity and regular exercise, and minimal screen time. Good nutrition that includes whole foods and minimally processed foods has lifelong benefits. Drinking enough water and staying hydrated is key to good health. Making sleep a priority is important for healthy development. Parents also help children learn to manage emotions, solve problems, communicate and develop close relationships with others, in short providing the foundational building blocks for healthy mental and emotional development. Parents also have an important role in ensuring that children receive preventive health care, including oral health care. Proactive and preventive daily practices and regular visits with medical and dental providers ensure developmental milestones are being met, children’s health is being monitored, and issues or concerns can be addressed before they become more serious.”
Lise M. Youngblade, PhD – Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences, Colorado State University
How have utilization of preventive and primary care among children changed in recent years?
“One of the biggest changes in my opinion has been an increase in ‘anti-vaccine’ dialogue and behavior. This is unfortunate because childhood vaccination has been one of the biggest success stories in public health and modern medicine and is a critical cornerstone in preventive care. There is a tremendous amount of storytelling about the dangers of vaccinations on media platforms that appears compelling yet is not backed by research evidence. When they cause parents to shy away from a vaccine that could save their child’s life because of unproven information, they put not only those children at risk, but also their communities.”
Lise M. Youngblade, PhD – Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences, Colorado State University
With America’s youth facing an ongoing mental health crisis, and nearly 60% of those with major depression not receiving treatment, what actions can parents and health care providers take to mitigate this issue?
“Research shows that a sense of predictability and routine are important for young people’s mental health. It is also important for children to have a trusted adult to turn to. Often this is a parent, but others fill this role as well: coaches, neighbors, teachers, and healthcare providers are all part of the support structure for children. It is also important to have conversations about health and mental health with children – and have them often. Parents can talk about their own mental health challenges and successes as a way of normalizing and de-stigmatizing mental health issues, and this makes children more open to sharing their own feelings. It is especially important to check in with children whenever there is a noticeable change in their mood or behavior (e.g., changes in sleep, interpersonal connections, or dietary changes). Finally, it’s important for parents to know there are resources available through their pediatricians and other health care providers, schools, and community agencies – along with crisis lines in states and the 988 national hotline.”
Lise M. Youngblade, PhD – Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences, Colorado State University
