New State Scorecard on Health System Performance

Oct 12th, 2009

The Commonwealth Fund’s new state health care scorecard, Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Perfomance, finds wide differences in access, quality, avoidable hospitalization and cost across the states.

The states that led in the last state scorecard (in 2007) generally continued to lead, often setting new benchmarks and widening the gap between leading and lagging states.

Kentucky, which was ranked 43^rd among the states in 2007, fell two places to 45^th in the 2009 rankings.

Across states, health insurance coverage for adults declined, health care costs rose, and quality improved in areas where outcomes were reported to the public.

According to the report, the continuing and growing disparities in state performance point to the urgent need for comprehensive national health system reform.

Read the full report on the scorecard here.

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