Cities Where People Spend the Most & Least on Health Care

Staying healthy has continued to grow more and more expensive in the U.S., with the consumer price index for medical care increasing by over 11.8% just in the last five years.

To determine where people are spending the greatest percentage of their earnings on health care, WalletHub analyzed the prices of five key health care components in 100 of the largest U.S. cities, then added these costs together and compared them to the median household income.

“As health care gets increasingly more expensive, more and more people find themselves struggling to afford essential services and medicines. While some cities have lower prices than others, the average income in many places still may not be enough to keep up with the costs, especially when consumers have also faced inflated prices across all other facets of their budgets over the past few years.”

Chip Lupo, WalletHub Writer and Analyst

Knowing how to budget well can help you ensure that you have enough money set aside for future health care costs. One of the most important things to do while budgeting is to build an emergency fund that can cover three to six months (or more) of your expenses, which can help you minimize the amount of debt you need to take on if you’re suddenly hit with an expensive medical bill. Regardless of how good you are at budgeting, though, some people will need to pay more for health care than others just because of the city in which they live.

Main Findings

Cities That Spend the Most & Least on Health Care

Note: *No. 1 = Highest Spending

In-Depth Look at the Cities That Spend the Most

Detroit, MI

People in Detroit spend the most on health care, with essential medical visits and medicine costing an average of 13.2% of the median monthly household income, the highest percentage in the country. For comparison, residents of Gilbert, AZ, only spend around 3.5% of their income for the same services and medicines, the lowest percentage.

Detroit is very expensive for some health care services and products, but fairly affordable for others. For example, it’s the 12th-most expensive city for a doctor visit and the 28th-most expensive for a dentist visit. However, it only ranks 85th-most expensive for an optometrist visit among 100 of the largest U.S. cities. Medication is also not overly expensive in Detroit, with the city only ranking as the 62nd-most expensive city for insulin glargine and the 73rd-most expensive for ibuprofen.

The biggest reason why people in Detroit spend the most on health care is the city’s average income, at $39,575. That’s the second-lowest average in the country, so even without extremely expensive health care prices, Detroit residents still outspend people in other cities when you adjust for income.

Cleveland, OH

People in Cleveland spend the second-most money on health care, with essential medical visits and medicine costing around 11.4% of the median monthly household income. This is largely due to the fact that Cleveland has the lowest median household income in the country, at $39,187 per year.

Cleveland is a relatively expensive city for buying medicine. It has the 23rd-most expensive ibuprofen prices and the 30th-most expensive insulin glargine prices among 100 of the largest U.S. cities.

Medical visits are a bit cheaper, though. Cleveland ranks as only the 62nd-most expensive city for an optometrist visit, the 68th-most expensive for a regular doctor visit, and the 74th-most expensive for a dentist visit.

Newark, NJ

Newark, NJ, residents spend the third-most money on health care relative to what they earn, paying out an average of 11.3% of the median monthly household income for key medical services and medicine.

Newark has a low median household income, at $48,416 per year. That’s the sixth-lowest average in the country. Newark also has high prices for certain types of medical examinations, with the ninth-most expensive doctor visits and the 19th-most expensive dentist visits among 100 of the largest U.S. cities. It also ranks as the 27th-most expensive city for buying ibuprofen.

However, Newark is notably the fifth-cheapest city for purchasing insulin glargine. It’s also ranking as only the 60th-most expensive city for optometrist visits.

Methodology

In order to determine the cities that spend the most and least on health care, WalletHub analyzed the prices of five components, including the costs of doctor, dentist and optometrist visits, plus the prices of ibuprofen and insulin glargine, across some of the largest 100 cities.

We summed up the individual costs of the components and adjusted the resulting figure to the median monthly income in each city, then used these results to rank-order our sample.

For simplicity, we considered the acquisition of only one unit of each component included in our calculation.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected as of November 20, 2025 from the U.S. Census Bureau and Council for Community and Economic Research.

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