AdminThink back to your last doctor visit. A nurse probably took your body temperature, pulse rate, and respiration to provide a snapshot of your overall health. While they didn’t make an exhaustive diagnosis, those vital signs provided important context to the physician and could point to a problem that might require further testing or attention.
Ratings are everywhere—we give them to everything from hair salons to rideshare drivers. Similarly, regulators issue ratings on healthcare organizations and plans, and they are increasingly used by consumers to choose where to get their care.
The 2023 State Scorecard includes 58 measures on healthcare access, quality, use of services, costs, health disparities, reproductive care and women’s health, and health outcomes. Massachusetts, Hawaii, and New Hampshire top the rankings, while Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Mississippi lag behind. Deaths from COVID-19 and other preventable chronic diseases rose dramatically during the pandemic, lowering life expectancy in these states.
This year’s Scorecard adds 12 new measures that evaluate and rank states on women’s and reproductive health, including maternal mortality and infant survival, and access to abortion and other reproductive services. The results show wide state variation across these metrics, as well as significant progress by most states in improving the health of their residents, particularly among women and infants.
Americans’ views of the quality of their personal healthcare are at a low ebb, with only 72% saying they feel that it is excellent or good—down six points since 2020 and four points in the past year. This is especially true for Republicans, who are the only group to see a drop in their positive rating of the quality of healthcare since Trump’s election. health scores united states