Iowa ranks well in national health score card

Iowa ranked second nationwide, in a tie with Hawaii, on cost, quality and other measures of health care, according to a new report.

Vermont was rated first in the score card, released today by the Commonwealth Fund.

The report used 38 indicators in areas of access, care/treatment quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, healthy lives and equity.

Iowa ranked in the top quarter of all states in every category, except avoidable hospital use and costs.

States that led in the 2007 score card generally continued to lead, often widening the gap between lagging states. 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.

Health insurance coverage for adults declined in a majority of states since the first state score card was released in 2007.

In contrast, most states made gains in health coverage for children due to federal and state support for the Children's Health Insurance Program.

This year, Vermont, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire led the nation as top performers on a majority of score card indicators.

The score card notes that if all states could reach the level achieved by the top performing states:

• Twenty-nine million more people would have health insurance, cutting the number of uninsured by more than half;

• Nearly 78,000 fewer adults and children would die prematurely every year from conditions that could have been prevented with timely and effective health care;

• 9 million more adults age 50 and older would receive recommended preventive care, and almost 800,000 more children would receive key vaccinations;

• Five billion dollars could be saved annually by avoiding preventable hospital admissions and readmissions for vulnerable elderly and disabled residents.

Iowa was among the states cited as providing efficient use of resources that could improve the quality of care people receive while keeping costs in check.

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting independent research on health policy reform and a high performance health system.

An interactive map that allows users to look at and download individual state information and compare states on various measures is available at www.commonwealthfund.org