States vary widely in the quality of health care children receive, as well as children’s access to care, family insurance premiums, equity, and the potential to lead long, healthy, productive lives, according to a new scorecard issued by The Commonwealth Fund. The scorecard assesses how the health system is performing for children across these five dimensions on a state-by-state basis.
The report, U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard, ranked states on 13 indicators for children grouped in categories that include access, quality, costs, equity, and healthy outcomes. Although no single state performed at the top across all categories, some states far surpassed others. While the rate of uninsured children varies widely across states, from 5 percent in Michigan to 20 percent in Texas, the scorecard found that states with the highest rankings on access to care--meaning that they have nearly all of their children insured--were almost uniformly among the best scorers on quality of care and equity measures. However, there was room for improvement in even the highest-ranked states, which fell short of established standards on some indicators. Read the overview.
