Health system performance scorecard ranks Ohio 27th
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-10-14 14:44:41 | Word Count: 506
In its report called Aiming Higher about identifying where states can improve performance on health care relative to achievable benchmarks for 38 indicators of access, quality, costs and health outcomes, Ohio, which ranked 27th, could have 589 thousand more adults insured if it improved its level to that of best performing states like Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine or New Hampshire.
The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation working toward a higher performance health system, released a report that shows America's health care system is undergoing stress, with deteriorating health insurance coverage for adults and rising health care costs.
[ advertisement ]
As stated on the group's Web site for this report, while gains in children's coverage improved as a result of national reforms, and improvement in some measures of hospital and nursing home care following federal efforts to publicly report quality data, the scorecard report highlighted a "persistent wide variation in performance across states and continued evidence of poor care coordination."
Increasing cost pressures and deterioration in access across the U.S., it said, together with geographic disparities in performance, "underscore the urgent need for comprehensive national reforms to ensure access, change the trajectory of costs, and enhance value."
Key findings for Ohio:
About 85 percent of 18- to 64-year-olds had insurance, down a percentage point from the 2007 study. However, the data were collected in 2007-08, before the recession cost many workers their jobs and their coverage.
Ohio is fifth among states for having two-thirds of children assigned to a medical home typically a pediatrician meaning theyre up to date on immunizations and have coordinated care for any chronic conditions.
It ranks 42nd for a compilation of healthy lives, including breast and colon cancer deaths, smoking and obesity rates and infant mortality.
When compared with the best-performing states, Ohio has 2.75 times as many hospital admissions for pediatric asthma and double the number of admissions for Medicare beneficiaries with conditions best managed on an outpatient basis such as diabetes.
Ohio ranks 9th for affordability of employer-based insurance, with an average of $4,090 for single coverage, compared with $4,360 nationally and $3,830 in the most affordable state.
Ohioans want public option, poll shows
According to the 2009 Ohio Health Issues Poll, nearly 70 percent of adult Ohioans identified health care as a top priority and believe a public option would improve the system. One in three Ohioans, the report reported, go without care.
