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Health Care for Kids Varies Widely Across US

When an American child needs medical attention, the quality of care expected varies widely from one state to the next, with a four-fold measure of quality separating children covered under a medical insurance plan and those who are uninsured.

According to scorecard-based rankings presented by Commonwealth Fund, children living in the top-ranked five states have a much greater likelihood of enjoying a long and healthy life than children living elsewhere.

The top five states that provide the best health care to its children are Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  The states at the bottom of the list, those providing the poorest quality of health care to its children, are New Jersey, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas.

According to Karen Davis, president of Commonwealth, a privately owned foundation chartered with the mission of promoting improved health care to every American, an excess of one-third all US children enjoy healthcare coverage funded by federal and state governments.  The Medicaid program covers 28 million children while the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) covers 6 million more.

Texas, with 20%, has the highest number of children without insurance while Michigan tops the list with only 5% of its children not covered by medical insurance.  Insurance opens the door to access to medical coverage, allowing the development of a “medical home,” where familiar faces and surroundings are the setting for routine health care throughout childhood.  In New Hampshire, 77% of the children can claim a medical home but only 34% can do so in Mississippi.

Childhood vaccinations are another indicator of quality of care.  Massachusetts’s children have a 94% success rate for being on track for all recommended childhood vaccinations.  Only 67% of Nevada’s children are as well protected.

Thirteen scoring factors were used in the Commonwealth study.  For the most part, the Northeastern states and those of the Upper Midwest enjoyed the highest rankings on multiple factors, the states of the South and Southwest scored lowest.  Limited access to affordable medical care usually means a child goes without dental or medical intervention, even when needed.  Limited access puts children at higher risk of developmental delays and an increased rate of infant mortality.

Proponents of the study hope it will lead to increased funding for Medicaid and SCHIP coverage to low-income children everywhere.  If every state matched Michigan’s rate of insured children, the rate of uninsured American children would be slashed in half, to less than 5 million uninsured children.  Almost 11 million more children could claim a medical home.

Source: Washington Post

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