Mississippi spends less than the national average for testing and treatment of COVID-19 cases.

In a recent report, Mississippi ranked No. 17 among the 50 states when it comes to how much the state is spending on testing and treatment of COVID-19 cases. Mississippi spends approximately $137 per COVID-19 case. The national average is $142 per COVID-19 case. Comparatively, New Jersey — which ranks with the highest spending — spends approximately $586 per COVID-19 case. Montana, which ranks at the bottom, spends approximately $8 per COVID-19 case.

The United States is leading the world in total cases of COVID-19, with over 8 million. The high number of cases is perceived as troublesome, especially given the United States’ lack of health insurance among citizens.

Pandemic job losses have led to over 5 million people losing employer-sponsored health insurance coverage, and an estimated 10 million will have lost their employer coverage by the end of 2020. Congress did step up in a big way with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Air, Relief, and Economic Security act. Each economic relief package gives over $176 billion for testing and treatment of COVID-19 for people without health insurance.

Officials at QuoteWizard analyzed CDC data that looked to total reimbursements in each state to see where the highest average rate of funds have been used so far.

To evaluate how much each state is spending on testing and treatment, we looked at the total dollar figure between testing and treatment then divided that total by the total number of COVID-19 cases in each state to arrive at a cost-per-case figure. This figure represents a per-person metric that shows how states have utilized testing and treatment for uninsured people. When looking at the top states for cost per case, these are states that have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 cases. Because of the high number of cases, there has also been a large utilization of testing and treatment. These are states that have acted in deploying widespread testing and treatment.

However, these high costs per case are also a sign of high levels of uninsured people in these states. Over half of the top states for cost per case are also states with the highest rates of uninsured people. This would signal that while testing and treatment has been utilized more, it’s because there are more uninsured people in these states that need to be reimbursed. Texas, for example, is the third-highest cost per case at $395. Texas also has the highest uninsured rate in the country at 18%. Texas is a case where an already-high rate of uninsured people means the high cost per case is likely due to a large number of uninsured people that are being reimbursed. New Jersey, on the other side of the coin, had the highest cost per case at $586 but only has a 7% uninsured rate. New Jersey’s low uninsured rate and high cost per case is likely a result of full utilization of testing and treatment resources in the state. The mobilization of testing and treatment in New Jersey could be looked at as a successful rollout of needed resources compared to other states.

Below is the full ranking of all of the states:

Rank	State	COVID-19 Cases	Testing Claims	Treatment Claims	Cost per COVID-19 Case
1	New Jersey	222,193	$46,149,797	$83,973,205	$586
2	North Carolina	248,750	$77,367,001	$40,085,455	$472
3	Texas	833,557	$58,658,376	$270,822,786	$395
4	New York	231,273	$32,449,380	$44,430,614	$332
5	Missouri	159,625	$44,195,768	$7,883,605	$326
6	Maryland	137,236	$5,910,713	$28,817,971	$253
7	Georgia	342,438	$22,511,848	$58,840,682	$238
8	Virginia	168,772	$7,422,381	$29,489,278	$219
9	Florida	750,739	$45,139,106	$100,000,567	$193
10	Tennessee	233,569	$19,150,481	$22,926,658	$180
11	Kansas	72,968	$8,328,949	$4,615,588	$177
12	Nevada	91,592	$5,348,476	$10,664,850	$175
13	Colorado	87,582	$3,852,747	$11,028,788	$170
14	Vermont	1,956	$123,729	$181,416	$156
15	Illinois	354,462	$16,226,392	$37,247,645	$151
16	Maine	5,989	$658,908	$175,268	$139
17	Mississippi	112,123	$6,475,454	$8,910,626	$137
18	Delaware	23,325	$940,260	$2,216,265	$135
19	Louisiana	179,769	$11,564,111	$12,280,030	$133
20	Washington	99,150	$4,190,964	$8,660,239	$130
21	New Mexico	37,896	$3,380,444	$1,427,648	$127
22	Alabama	174,528	$10,053,806	$11,936,773	$126
23	Oklahoma	115,877	$7,464,158	$6,949,785	$124
24	Connecticut	64,455	$1,767,285	$6,103,446	$122
25	South Carolina	165,493	$7,075,761	$12,382,808	$118
26	Pennsylvania	184,872	$8,375,507	$13,047,425	$116
27	Nebraska	59,409	$1,324,837	$5,557,393	$116
28	Idaho	54,663	$4,344,992	$1,688,064	$110
29	Massachusetts	152,191	$8,685,033	$6,578,478	$100
30	Utah	96,643	$3,376,403	$6,289,886	$100
31	South Dakota	34,457	$949,531	$2,447,036	$99
32	Oregon	40,136	$2,393,104	$1,471,456	$96
33	Minnesota	125,531	$4,531,937	$7,533,013	$96
34	Indiana	150,664	$5,063,500	$9,228,356	$95
35	California	874,077	$41,387,954	$36,710,848	$89
36	Arizona	232,937	$9,238,176	$11,051,288	$87
37	Rhode Island	28,649	$370,732	$1,996,055	$83
38	Arkansas	100,441	$3,835,064	$4,057,018	$79
39	Ohio	185,639	$5,267,046	$8,645,689	$75
40	New Hampshire	9,828	$461,117	$272,541	$75
41	Michigan	165,994	$5,906,446	$4,866,172	$65
42	Hawaii	14,108	$663,151	$174,442	$59
43	Wyoming	9,526	$280,399	$279,152	$59
44	Kentucky	89,544	$2,399,029	$881,841	$37
45	Wisconsin	187,828	$2,310,071	$4,070,110	$34
46	Alaska	11,393	$320,673	$57,214	$33
47	Iowa	108,691	$957,898	$2,473,391	$32
48	North Dakota	34,165	$560,357	$377,916	$27
49	West Virginia	20,519	$362,053	$57,791	$20
50	Montana	24,093	$96,629	$103,263	$8