The state of Texas is dead last in delivering health care.
The 2011 State Snapshots report is based on 155 quality measures gathered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The measures include disease prevention efforts, deaths from various conditions as well as infant mortality and suicides, cancer treatment, and how well health care providers manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and patients with incurable conditions.
Texas is weakest on measures of home health care but showed strengths in nursing home care, said the report, released this week.
Overall, Texas scored 31.61 out of 100 points. The No. 1 state, Minnesota, scored 67.31, with Wisconsin close behind at 67.20.
“For some states, like Texas, we hope it will motivate policy makers and providers to improve the quality of care,” said report researcher Dr. Ernest Moy, a medical officer at the agency’s Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
Yeah, I couldn’t read that quote with a straight face, either. The report is here. The TM Daily Post summarizes as follows:
State health officials say Texas’ poor rating is a result of inadequate funding and a large uninsured population. About 25 percent of the state’s residents lack health insurance, more than any other state.
This is, of course, a feature and not a bug in our state. Keep that in mind when the geniuses in charge make their decision about expanding Medicaid, which would go a long way towards dealing with those issues. Juanita has more.
All sorts of interesting stuff in the study. Including that Texas’ score on “disparity”, meaning the care that blacks and Latinos get compared to whites, is in the “strong” range, above the national average despite our #50 rank, while Wisconsin (the #2 state) is in the “very weak” range, below the average and perhaps near the very bottom. The heavy weight the report gives to “uninsured” numbers seems to predestine Texas to a low ranking because of our high % of illegal aliens, who of course don’t have insurance. But the public, non-insurance care that Texas gives to, for example, Latinos, pulls their care level way up compared to whites (who presumably are more likely to have insurance). Wonder what Wisconsin does so badly that prejudices black and Latno health care? Interesting.