Health care report details disparity among states -- chicagotribune.com

Health care report details disparity among states -- chicagotribune.com

WASHINGTON - -- Even as state and federal initiatives have extended a medical safety net beneath children in recent years, more American adults have been without insurance coverage -- compounding the already serious problems of the health care system and fueling sharp disparities in cost and quality of care across the country
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High-ranking states tended to have less poverty and higher median incomes than states at the bottom. But there were instructive exceptions, the report found.

Maine ranks 35th in median household and 28th in percentage of residents living in poverty, but fifth on the Commonwealth score card in part because it is one of the few states that extends Medicaid coverage to childless adults and because it requires an unusual amount of information-sharing among health care providers and health officials within the state, according to the report.
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Historic trends account for some geographical variances identified by the study: New England and some Upper Midwest states such as Minnesota have tended to have large employers who provided health insurance to workers.

Two big states with traditionally strong economies ranked relatively low. California stood 31st while Florida ranked 44th with the lowest percentage of insured children.

Illinois dropped to 42nd from 32nd place, a decline caused partly by dips in quality measures including the number of nursing home residents requiring hospitalization and of patients re-admitted after discharged from hospitals. ...