The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the U.S. health care system to its limit and amplified persistent gaps among states as they grappled with the coronavirus and its emerging variants, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s 2022 Scorecard on State Health System Performance.
For the first time, the scorecard, which ranks states’ health care systems based on how well they work to provide high-quality, accessible, and equitable health care, also looked specifically at how well states have managed COVID-19. Overall, states that entered the pandemic with stronger health care systems fared better. Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Washington, and Oregon achieved the top rankings across the COVID-19-specific measures, while Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Georgia ranked at the bottom.