Commonwealth Fund Report Finds Wide Variations Among States in Child Health System Performance
August 6, 2008
Commonwealth Fund Report Finds Wide Variations Among States in Child Health System Performance
A recent Commonwealth Fund report, U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard found wide variations in state performance when measuring 13 indicators across the 5 categories of access, quality, costs, equity and health outcomes for children’s health systems. Lead author Ed Schor noted, “while there are pockets of excellence, no one state or region of the country is doing as well as it could be.” The report finds the top 13 states generally ranked high on multiple indicators within the five categories and often had among the lowest rates of uninsured children. Vermont and Iowa received special mention for concerted efforts over the past decade to expand children’s access to health services and to mandate reporting on the quality of care. Notably, across all states only 80.7% of children aged 19-35 months on average have received all recommended doses of 5 key vaccines. Massachusetts had the highest percentage of fully vaccinated children at 93.5% and Nevada had the lowest at 66.7%. Twenty two states had rates below 80%. The report also provides insight into some improvements the US might realize in children’s health if each state reached the performance levels of the best-ranking state. For example, 4.69 million more children would have insurance, 10.85 million more children would have access to a medical home, 11.76 million more children would receive a preventive medical and dental visit each year, and 1.6 million fewer children under 5 would be at risk for developmental delays.
For more information and to view the entire report, please visit http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=687113