© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Scorecard Ranks State Health Systems

By Kelley Weiss

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-598881.mp3

Kansas City, MO – Results from a national scorecard ranked the fifty states' health systems. KCUR's Kelley Weiss reports on how Kansas and Missouri did.

The Commonwealth Fund measured how well states deliver healthcare by studying equity, quality and efficiency of services as well as resident's general health. Hawaii scored the best for its health system and Iowa came in second while Oklahoma was the worst. Kansas ranked 20th and is in the top half of the study. But, Missouri was 37th falling into the bottom half. The study concludes that states in the bottom half have higher rates of uninsured, insufficient preventive care and because of that more people dying from preventable disease and driving up health costs.

Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

Download recent health stories or subscribe to the KCUR Health Podcast

KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.