New State Health Care Scorecard: Troubling Signs Despite Overall Progress
<p>A new Commonwealth Fund scorecard that measures health system performance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia shows that the combined death rate from suicide, alcohol, opioids, and other drugs increased by 50 percent nationwide between 2005 and 2016.</p><p>Rates of so-called deaths of despair rose across all states, with rates doubling or more in Delaware, Ohio, New Hampshire, New York, and West Virginia. Mortality rates for treatable medical conditions also rose, reversing a decade-long downward national trend. Gaps in mental health care are pervasive as well.</p>
<p>Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, and Utah are the nation’s top-ranked states on overall health system performance according to the 2018 scorecard, which features more than 40 measures of health care access, quality, and efficiency; health outcomes; and income-based health care disparities.</p>
<p>There is some good news: Americans’ ability to get affordable health care improved, with states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid experiencing the biggest gains from 2013 to 2016.</p>
<p>Find out more about national trends – and how your state fared – by visiting our interactive 2018 state scorecard digital report. </p>