Child Health Care Varies Widely From State To State
May 30, 2008
In the USA, the kind of health care received by a child varies depending on the state. In addition whether the child will live healthy and long depends on his state of residence too. These were the findings of a new scorecard. The scorecard was produced by a private organization called the Commonwealth Fund. Their aim is to provide better health care to Americans.
The top states ranked on how they provide health care are Iowa, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The states at the bottom of the list are Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Nevada, Mississippi and Louisiana. If all states performed as well as the top states then 4.6 million more children would be insured. More than 10 mn would get yearly medical and dental checkups and 1.6 mn less children across the USA woudld be at risk for developmental delays.
In America, 28 million children are protected by Medicaid and 6 million by SCHIP. Insurance for children was essential to providing them health care. In Michigan there were only 5 percent uninsured children, while in Texas there were 20 percent uninsured kids. The same variance across states applied to vaccinations as well.
The study considered 13 indicators of childrens health. Jenny Sullivan of Families USA thinks the report is a great report and shows how important SCHIP and Medicaid are.
