Connecticut’s health system ranked 11th in performance nationally and fifth out of the six New England states, according to the latest study by The Commonwealth Fund.
The fund on Wednesday published its 2025 Scorecard on State Health System Performance, part of a series of reports tracking how each state’s health system is working.
Using data from 2023, the most recent available, the report measures health care access, affordability, quality, outcomes and equity in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The state’s health system performance rank of 11th nationally is down five spots from No. 6 just two years ago. Its rank among the New England states remained the same.
According to the study, Connecticut ranked:
- Ninth overall in access and affordability, down from eighth two years ago;
- Fifth in prevention and treatment, an improvement from seventh;
- 48th in avoidable hospital use and cost, down from 40th;
- Second overall in healthy lives, up from seventh;
- 37th in income disparity, a dramatic fall from eighth two years ago; and
- 11th in racial health equity, down from eighth.
“As a state, we’ve made progress in some performance indicator categories, including prevention and treatment and healthy living,” said Dr. Deidre Gifford, commissioner of the state Office of Health Strategy. “We see improvement in medical debt, preventative medical and dental care for kids, and smoking cessation.”
She noted, however, that the scorecard “also highlights the growing disparities we face as a state and underscores the critical need for a continued focus on how we deliver and pay for healthcare for all of our residents.”
Gifford called the state’s low ranking on the avoidable hospital use and cost category “particularly concerning.”
“This measure includes indicators of hospital and emergency department use that might be reduced with timely and effective care, as well as the share of spending directed toward primary care,” she said.
The state’s relatively poor performance also “is further evidence of the need to refocus payers and providers on shoring up the state’s fragile primary care system,” she said. “The impact of racial and economic disparities on the health of Connecticut residents has become even more pronounced in recent years.”
Gifford acknowledged that what happens at the national level, including proposed Medicaid funding cuts and the potential expiration of federal tax credits that subsidize healthcare costs for consumers who use the state’s health insurance exchange, “has the potential to erase the gains we’ve made and further isolate communities already at high-risk in our state.”
She continued, “Now, more than ever, we must focus on policy that reduces the burden on the consumer and supports healthcare providers in delivering the most needed services in each community.”
