For years, WalletHub has done annual rankings for life as working moms for Mother’s Day. This year, for the first time, it did a ranking for life as working dads for Father’s Day, and it shows Louisiana with an overall ranking next to last, ahead of only New Mexico. Analyst Chip Lupo says the fact that Louisiana is a predominantly rural state plays a major role in its low ranking.
“A lot of rural areas; which makes things such as, not only childcare but healthcare inaccessible and, in a lot of cases, unaffordable,” Lupo said.
Lupo was asked whether Louisiana would have had a higher ranking if the rankings only accounted for the well-populated areas of each state.
“There’s access and affordability in the larger areas, so I think if you just extrapolate that part the numbers, at least in terms of affordability and access, would be a little bit higher, but not much,” Lupo noted.
Whereas Louisiana ranked no higher than 45th in nearly all metrics, the one exception is in the male uninsured rate, in which Louisiana ranks 32nd. Lupo says, however, that number is being held down due to a large number of areas of high unemployment.
“Most people’s insurance is tied to their Jobs; so if you’re unable to secure quality, full-time employment with a good benefits package, your healthcare insurance suffers,” Lupo explained.
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