Health conditions and health care facilities in North Carolina vary widely from region to region. In the larger cities-and especially in proximity to the excellent medical schools at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—quality health care is as readily available as anywhere in the US.
Around 15% of North Carolinians were uninsured in 2002. The one million Medicare and 985,000 Medicaid recipients in North Carolina received respectively $3.7 and $2.7 billion dollars in health care in 1994.
In 2000 the infant mortality rate stood at 8.6 per 1,000 live births. In 1999, there were 32,081 legal abortions, or 19 per 1,000 women. The death rate for HIV-related infections was 6.0 per 100,000 population, higher than the US average of 5.3 in 2000. A total of 11,356 AIDS cases had been reported through 2001. The leading causes of death in North Carolina are similar to those in the rest of the US although, as of 2000, North Carolinians died less frequently from heart disease than other Americans, but more frequently from cerebrovascular disease, accidents, and suicide. The 2000 overall death rate of 928.5 per 100,000 inhabitants was above the national average of 873.1. Among North Carolina residents age 18 and older, 26.1% were smokers in 2000. Death resulting from lung disease occurred at a rate of 80.3 per 100,000 population in 2000.
A particularly serious public health problem in North Carolina is byssinosis, or brown lung disease. Caused by prolonged inhalation of cotton dust, byssinosis cripples the lungs of longtime textile workers, producing grave disability and even death. According to a study in 1980, the Brown Lung Association estimated that some 25,000 present or former North Carolina textile workers showed symptoms of byssinosis, and that between 10,000 and 15,000 North Carolinians were disabled by it; textile industry estimates ran to less than one-tenth of those figures.
North Carolina's 111 community hospitals had 973,451 admissions and 23,755 beds in 2001. There were 31,324 full-time registered nurses and 2,738 full-time licensed practical nurses in 2001 and 255 physicians per 100,000 population in 2000. The average expense of a community hospital for care was $1,297.90 per inpatient day in 2001.
Federal government grants to cover the Medicare and Medicaid services in 2001 totaled $4.1 billion; 1,154,864 enrollees received Medicare benefits that year. At least 14.4% of North Carolina's residents were uninsured in 2002.
The state acted to increase the supply of doctors in eastern North Carolina in the 1970s by the establishment of a new medical school at East Carolina University in Greenville. Medical schools and superior medical research facilities are also located at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, UNC Hospitals at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.