Milwaukee, Minneapolis Listed Among Top U.S. Cities For Health Care Access

Rankings From Health Care Website Determined By Number Of Physicians, Hospitals Per Capita

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Milwaukee was ranked third on the Vitals ranking. Photo: Jeramey Jannene (CC-BY).

Vitals, a website that claims to empower consumers to make more informed decisions about their health, has listed Milwaukee and Minneapolis as among the top ten U.S. cities for access to health care.

The ranking is based on the number of primary care physicians and hospitals in each city per capita. Cleveland came in first, while Minneapolis and Milwaukee were ranked in second and third places respectively.

Vitals CEO Mitch Rothschild says in their review of access, patients may have moved but doctors didn’t. In other words, some of the country’s mid-sized cities saw flat or declining population growth, but doctors generally stayed.

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“So I think residents of Milwaukee have the benefit of being able to have great facilities and lots of doctors and not a hard time accessing them,” he said.

While Milwaukee has seen a long-term decline in population since its peak in 1960, the number of residents has recently started to increase, especially in the downtown area.

Rothschild started Vitals by partnering with a cardiac surgeon. He says as more people seek doctors and insurance online, they’ll need to raise their level of understanding about medicine and how to purchase it.

“Particularly with the growth of high deductible plans and growth of the inexpensively priced, high co-pay plans on the exchanges, people are going to need to become more informed consumers,” Rothschild said. “You’re going to have a lot of sticker shock – a lot of people not going to the best doctors.”

This is the second annual report by Vitals ranking access to health care in various cities.