Infant mortality for the 12 months ending December 2000 was 6.5 per 1,000 live births, below the national average of 6.9. In 1999, 6,106 legal abortions were performed, a rate of 10 per 1,000 women. The overall death rate was 975.2 per 100,000 population in 2000 higher than the US average of 873.1. Rates for the leading causes of death, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, were higher than the national averages. The smoking prevalence was 23.3% of all Iowans ages 18 and older. The rate of HIV-related deaths stood at 0.8 per 100,000 population, well below the national average of 5.3 in 2000. There were 1,402 AIDS cases reported through 2001.
Iowa's 116 community hospitals had 370,885 admissions and 11,811 beds in 2001. There were 12,029 full-time registered nurses and 1,310 full-time licensed practical nurses in 2001 and 199 physicians per 100,000 population in 2000. The average expense of a community hospital for care was $1,437.60 per inpatient day in 2001.
Federal government grants to cover the Medicare and Medicaid services in 2001 totaled $1.1 billion; 478,063 enrollees received Medicare benefits that year. Only 7.5% of the population were uninsured in 2002.