Americans’ Health Declines and Access to Reproductive Care Shrinks, But States Have Options

The Commonwealth Fund 6/22/2023

Scorecard Highlights

• Massachusetts, Hawaii, and New Hampshire top the 2023 State Scorecard rankings for health system performance, based on 58 measures of health care access, quality, use of services, costs, health disparities, reproductive care and women’s health, and health outcomes. The lowest-performing states were Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Mississippi.
• Deaths from COVID-19 — as well as premature, avoidable deaths from causes like drug overdoses, firearms, and certain treatable chronic conditions — rose dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, lowering life expectancy across the United States.
• There was wide state variation on the Scorecard’s new measures of health outcomes and access to care for women, mothers, and infants. Maternal mortality and deaths related to substance use rose quickly among women of reproductive age during the pandemic — a particular concern given new state policies limiting reproductive care access.
• Temporary federal policies during the COVID-19 pandemic drove uninsured rates to record lows, with nearly all states realizing gains in health coverage. But some of those policies have ended, and high health costs still saddle millions of Americans with medical debt.
• There are ways the nation could improve health outcomes and lessen variation from state to state. Federal and state governments could: close the coverage gaps that remain and enroll uninsured people who are eligible for subsidized coverage; improve the cost protections of insurance plans; and lower barriers to reproductive health, preventive health, and behavioral health care, particularly for the most vulnerable.

READ MORE