The U.S. health care system achieves a score of 64 out of 100 in the third National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, released last week by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
Despite pockets of progress, the United States as a whole failed to improve when compared with the top 10 percent of U.S. states, regions, health plans, or health care providers, or the top-performing countries. The scorecard measures the health system across 42 key indicators of health care quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. In particular, the report notes significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care, as health care costs have risen far faster than family incomes.
Most of the data used in the scorecard dates from 2007 to 2009, prior to enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The health reform law targets many of the areas where the U.S. falls short—through measures that expand access to care and seek to make care more affordable, patient-centered, and coordinated.
Visit the National Scorecard page to download the report and check out the infographic.
