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U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard |
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From The Commonwealth Fund: This report examines variations among states' child health care systems, building on the State Scorecard published by The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. Focusing on 13 performance indicators of access, quality, costs, equity, and the potential to lead healthy lives, the authors find wide variation among states, including distinct regional patterns. Top-performing states, such as Iowa and Vermont, have adopted policies to expand children's access to care and improve the quality of care. While leading states outperform lagging states on multiple indicators, all states have opportunities to improve. Twenty-eight million children are covered by Medicaid, and 6 million are covered by the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which was enacted in 1997 to expand coverage of children in low-income families. Yet, some states do better than others in promoting the health and development of their youngest residents, and in ensuring that all children are on course to lead healthy and productive lives. The analysis focuses on 13 indicators of child health system performance along the dimensions of access, quality, costs, and the "potential to lead healthy lives." Iowa and Vermont have created children's health care systems that are accessible, equitable, and deliver high-quality care, all while controlling levels of spending and family health insurance premiums. Over the last decade, both states adopted policies to expand children's access to care and improve their quality of care. Sixty-one percent of children in New Hampshire, and over half of all children in all the New England states, have a medical home, compared with only one-third in Mississippi. There are strong regional patterns in child health system performance.
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