St. Louis Health Care

St. Louis is one of the nation’s leading health care centers. St. Louis is home to two renowned medical schools at Saint Louis University and Washington University. In the class of 2007-08 these schools of medicine graduated 267 MDs and 273 PhDs in Health-Related Sciences (1). The St. Louis MSA had 7,514 physicians in 2007, including 2,211 in primary care, 693 in subspecialties, and 3,459 in all other specialties according to the American Medical Association (2).

In addition, the region has a dental school, college of optometry, college of chiropractic medicine, and two schools of pharmacy. Greater St. Louis also has numerous nursing, allied health, and health care technical programs.

These colleges and universities along with a diverse range of local health care organizations have made St. Louis nationally known as a center for medical research, especially in the areas of medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

The health care and social assistance industry in the St. Louis MSA employed over 165,000 people in 2008 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As of November 2009, the St. Louis MSA had 61 hospitals. These area hospitals had over 12,000 beds authorized including approximately 7,350 medical-surgical beds (3).

Affordable Health Insurance

Greater St. Louis has comparatively low health insurance costs, especially when compared with other large metropolitan areas. The St. Louis, MO-IL MSA ranked the least expensive for employee contributions for family coverage out of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2008. The St. Louis, MO-IL MSA ranked 7th least expensive family premiums and as the 11th least expensive total premiums for single coverage and also employee-plus-one coverage. Data on average employee contributions and total premiums for private-sector establishments were collected by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (4).

This data documents businesses’ relatively low costs to provide health care insurance coverage to employees in Greater St. Louis. The St. Louis, MO-IL MSA had the 5th highest percent of establishments offering employee health insurance (61.3%) out of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2008 (5).

The percent of the St. Louis MSA population under age 65 which were uninsured was 12.4% in 2006, the latest data available at the metropolitan level. This was much better than the U.S. average of 17.8% uninsured, for this population during this period according to the U.S. Census Bureau (6).

Top Ranked

Greater St. Louis’ medical schools and hospitals are consistently among the top recognized in the U.S. Click here to see St. Louis' health care ratings and rankings.

Sources:
(1) College Opportunities Online Locator” National Center for Education Statistics, 2008.
(2) "Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S., 2009 Edition" American Medical Association, 2009.
(3) "Inventory of Health Care Facilities and Services and Need Determinations, 2008" Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, 2008. and "Inventory of Hospital Beds in Missouri" Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee, 2009.
(4) "Average Total Premiums and Employee Contributions (in Dollars) for Private-sector Establishments by Firm Size for 20 Largest Metro Areas: United States, 2008" in "Medical Expenditures Panel Survey" U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2009.
(5) "Health Insurance Offer, Eligibility, Take up Rates for Private-sector Establishments and Employees by Firm Size for 20 Largest Metro Areas: United States 2008" in "Medical Expenditures Panel Survey" U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2009.
(6) Small Area Health Insurance Coverage, 2006" U.S. Census Bureau, 2010.