Adults Without a Usual Place of Health Care, by U.S. Region, 2017

Having a usual place of health care — somewhere a person regularly goes when sick or needing health advice — is one measure of access to care. The National Health Interview Survey, based on household interviews with a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population, asked adults about it in 2017.

How it was asked

Adults were asked: “Is there a place that you usually go to when you are sick or need advice about your health?” Those who said “yes” or “there is more than one place” were counted as having a usual place of care; those who said “there is no place” were counted as without one. Refusals and “don’t know” answers were left out. The figures are age-adjusted.

What it found

In 2017, 13.9% of adults aged 18 and older had no usual place of health care. It varied by region:

Adults in the South were more likely than those in the West and Midwest to lack a usual place of care, and adults in the Northeast were the least likely.

Age-adjusted percentage of adults without a usual place of health care, by region, 2017. Error bars show 95% confidence intervals. Image from CDC’s page.

The regions

• Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
• Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
• South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
• West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Sources

Based on "QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Percentages of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Without a Usual Place of Health Care, by Region — National Health Interview Survey, 2017," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics; a work of the United States government in the public domain.