Two years after the reauthorization and expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a new Commonwealth Fund state-by-state scorecard evaluating how the health care system is working for children finds that federal and state action on behalf of children has helped preserve, and even expand, health coverage for this group, despite the severe recession.
Yet across the states, wide differences persist in coverage rates, the affordability of health care, children's receipt of preventive care and treatment, and their opportunity to lead healthy lives. According to the scorecard's findings, children living in the five top-ranked states—Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire—are more likely to be insured and to receive recommended medical and dental check-ups than children living in poorer-performing states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, Mississippi, or Nevada.
An interactive map enables comparisons among states on the 20 scorecard indicators and demonstrates the potential gains states could make by achieving benchmark levels of performance. Also available is a podcast that explores what states can learn from each other, and how health reform will help improve child health system performance.
