Doctors are among the highest-paid and most educated professionals in the U.S. Just consider the fact that “physician” is the most popular profession within the top 1 percent of earners. Doctors are deserving, after all, given the importance of their life-saving work and the struggles associated with life in the medical profession. Not only did the average medical-school graduate leave campus with more than $189,000 of debt in 2016, but the medical profession has also been undergoing intense transformation in recent years. Health-care reform, the rise of branded hospital networks and the retirement of Baby Boomers are all complicating the lives of doctors and warranting pause from potential whitecoats. It’s therefore fair to expect a certain measure of difference in terms of the working environments faced by doctors across the nation. So in order to help doctors make the most informed decisions regarding where to practice, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics. Our data set ranges from average annual wage of physicians to hospitals per capita to quality of public hospital system. Check out the complete ranking, additional expert commentary to help local governments identify policy initiatives and our detailed methodology below Best States to Practice Medicine Overall State Total Score 'opportunity&Competition' Rank 'Medical Enviroment'Rank Rank 1 Iowa 68.67 2 6 2 Minnesota 66.40 8 1 3 Idaho 66.31 3 11 4 Wisconsin 65.66 10 2 5 Kansas 65.15 6 5 6 South Dakota 63.24 1 42 7 Montana 63.13 4 22 8 Mississippi 62.40 5 23 9 Alabama 61.05 11 9 10 Tennessee 59.56 15 14 11 North Dakota 59.19 14 13 12 Nevada 57.44 17 19 13 Colorado 57.12 16 24 14 Arizona 56.96 13 32 15 Nebraska 56.91 12 34 16 Texas 56.53 23 4 17 Wyoming 55.88 7 47 18 South Carolina 55.60 26 3 19 Utah 54.90 19 11 20 Arkansas 54.75 24 7 21 West Virginia 54.75 9 43 22 Indiana 53.05 25 16 23 North Carolina 52.18 32 10 24 Florida 52.01 22 26 25 Louisiana 51.56 20 35 26 Georgia 51.47 29 21 27 Missouri 50.88 33 20 28 Kentucky 50.01 30 27 29 Washington 49.92 31 25 30 New Mexico 49.89 21 40 31 Pennsylvania 49.08 18 44 32 Virginia 48.81 37 18 33 Oklahoma 47.72 34 33 34 New Hampshire 47.37 28 39 35 Michigan 46.91 36 30 36 Illinois 45.89 27 45 37 Alaska 44.92 40 29 38 Vermont 44.87 39 15 39 Ohio 44.61 38 38 40 California 44.48 46 8 41 Oregon 44.14 45 17 42 Delaware 42.95 35 48 43 Hawaii 41.99 41 31 44 Maine 40.60 42 36 45 Connecticut 38.33 49 28 46 Massachusetts 37.85 47 37 47 Rhode Island 36.84 43 49 48 Maryland 36.45 44 50 49 New Jersey 34.48 48 46 50 District of Columbia 33.72 51 41 51 New York 28.49 50 51 Ask the Experts: The Future of the Medical Profession Medicine is changing rapidly, and the manner in which it is taught and practiced must adapt accordingly. The industry not only faces an aging population as well as new regulations, but it also must keep pace with technological breakthroughs and make sense of hospital reorganization and rebranding. With that in mind, we sought insight from medical professionals, business experts and public-policy researchers into the future of the medical profession. You can check out our panel as well as the questions we asked them below. How will the various proposals for dismantling the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, affect doctors? What are the biggest issues facing doctors today? How do state and local policies influence the lives of doctors and other medical professionals? What tips can you offer current medical students about what specialty to pursue and where to practice? To what extent does the threat of a malpractice lawsuit affect doctors ability to do their job? In evaluating the best states for doctors, what are the top five indicators? Taken altogether, has the ACA proven to be a net positive or net negative for physicians? Source
