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Children's health care varies widely by state

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 7, 2011

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Health care for children in Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont was more likely to hit certain performance standards than the care for children in many other states. That's according to "Securing a Healthy Future," a study of state health system performance for children released Feb. 2 by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy think tank based in New York.

Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas performed the worst on the study's index, which ranked states by four standards: access to and affordability of health insurance, prevention and treatment, potential to lead healthy lives, and health system equity.

"What is unique about this scorecard is that it looks at what has been achieved by the top states and holds that performance up as an example for other states -- because if it's possible to insure almost all of the kids in Alabama, it should be possible in Texas and Mississippi," said Commonwealth Fund Vice President Edward Schor, MD.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/02/07/gvbf0207.htm.

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