For a new player, how much Health should I target to have to be able to handle most enemies?

I'd say at the absolute max, 300. At least 200 health or above and you'll do fine. Also depends on difficulty.

I agree with shadowtitan, get your health to about 250-300 then start working on stamina ( unless you are a mage work on magicka) , but you will need the health later on

once you get 500 health you don't even need armor, so id say 300, or even 250. (for a newer player anyway)

thanks, I don't use much of shield bash or power attack though, so stamina is more of a nice-to-have stat.

I beat it with 100 O_o.

Pure mage character though.

500 for me. Only because I consider Elder Dragons and Ancient Dragons to be a huge pain in the ass. Most of the time they land, they go into that animation where I get turned into a chew toy.

100-500 health. I play on legendary and did the Main Quest first with Dead is Dead rule, so I needed 400-500 health in the end. If you play 'normal', then 250 should be ok. If you play a ranged mage or sneaky character you can keep health lower and together with difficulty setting it really is up to what YOU need in your situation.

I usually stay at 100 or perhaps go up to 130 or so if I get sick of the one hit deaths that start occuring at high levels.