CT child care strong, but room for improvement

Connecticut is among the top states in providing health care services to children, but there is still room for improvement, a new report says.

Connecticut ranked ninth out of 50 states in providing quality care to children based on 20 key performance indicators including access and affordability of care, prevention and treatment, and health system equity, according to a report by The Commonwealth Fund.

The Nutmeg state received its highest rating for affordability of care. The report said the average annual premium for family health insurance coverage-including employee and employer shares-equaled about 14 percent of the median family household income for the working-age population in the state.

That was the lowest percentage in the country, and well below the national average of 20 percent, the report said.

Connecticut also ranked fourth in the country for its ability to provide children access to preventative dental care and fifth for its access to preventable medical care.

But there is still room for improvement.

About 6.8 percent of children were uninsured in Connecticut at the end of 2009, the report said.  And over 20 percent of children in the state do not receive needed mental health care.

Among the surveys other findings:

• Where children live and their parent’s incomes significantly affect their access to affordable care, receipt of preventive care and treatment, and opportunities to survive past infancy and thrive.
• The 14 states in the top quartile of the overall performance ranking-Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Minnesota, Connecticut, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Washington-often perform well on multiple indicators and across dimensions. At the same time, the Scorecard finds that even the leading states have opportunities to improve: no state ranks in the top half of the performance distribution on all indicators.
• At the other end of the spectrum, states in the bottom quartile generally lag in multiple areas, with worse access to care, lower rates of recommended prevention and treatment, poorer health outcomes, and wide disparities related to income, race/ethnicity, and insurance status.