According to a new brief by the Commonwealth Fund, an estimated 18.7 million U.S. women ages 19 to 64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 12.8 million in 2000. An additional 16.7 million women had health insurance but had such high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income that they were effectively underinsured in 2010.

The Commonwealth Fund today released its first-ever Scorecard on Local Health System Performance. The findings show clearly that where you live matters for health care access and care experiences. Comparing all 306 local health care areas, known as hospital referral regions, in the United States, the report finds that access, quality, costs, and health outcomes all vary significantly from one local community to another, often with a two- to threefold variation in key indicators between leading and lagging communities. The top-performing areas are concentrated in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.

Check out the interactive infographic to explore your community and compare it to others.

As the wealth gap continues to grow in the United States, so does the divide in health coverage and access to health services.

"[Maryland] Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration is proposing to establish a number of health enterprise zones to address the glaring health disparities along racial and class lines that end lives prematurely and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year in additional medical costs. This is a promising idea that deserves further exploration; the need is obvious, the disparities are well-documented and a plan to test the program’s effectiveness through a series of pilot projects offers an affordable, relatively low-risk approach to the problem."

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Enterprise zones for health? Sounds interesting.

Maryland Health disparities: Enterprise zones would expand access to care - Baltimore Sun

(via reportingonhealth)

U.S. adults have more cost, access barriers to health care than those in other developed nations

An international survey, released today by the Commonwealth Fund, looked at adults living with health problems and complex care needs. The study found that patients in the United States are much more likely than those in 10 other high-income countries to forgo needed care because of costs and to struggle with medical debt. Among the study’s key findings:

Sicker adults in the U.S. stood out for having cost and access problems. More than one of four (27%) were unable to pay or encountered serious problems paying medical bills in the past year, compared with between 1 percent and 14 percent of adults in the other countries. In the U.S., 42 percent reported not visiting a doctor, not filling a prescription, or not getting recommended care. This is twice the rate for every other country but Australia, New Zealand and Germany.
In the U.S., cost-related access problems and medical bill burdens were concentrated among adults under age 65. Compared with Medicare-aged adults 65 or older, adults under 65 were far more likely to go without care because of the cost or to have problems paying bills.
Adults with complex care needs who received care from a medical home — an accessible primary care practice that knows their medical history and helps coordinate care — were less likely to report experiencing medical errors, test duplication, and other care coordination failures. They were also more likely to report having arrangements for follow-up care after a hospitalization and more likely to rate their care highly.
Sicker adults in the U.K. and Switzerland were the most likely to have a medical home: nearly three-quarters were connected to practices that have medical home characteristics, compared with around half in most of the other countries.

For a larger version of the above graphic, click here.

New survey results reveal the state of oral health among the growing Hispanic population in the United States.

Audio by the Hispanic Dental Association.

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