Second National Scorecard on U.S. Health Care System Finds No Overall Improvement; Steep Decline in Access, Scores on Efficiency Especially Low

A new national scorecard from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System finds that the U.S. health care system has failed to improve overall and that scores on access have declined significantly since the first national scorecard in 2006. Despite spending more on health care than any other industrialized nation, the U.S. overall continues to fall far short on key indicators of health outcomes and quality, with particularly low scores on efficiency.

In the report, Why Not The Best? Results From The National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2008, the U.S. scored an average of 65 out of a possible 100 across 37 key indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity—slightly below the overall score in the 2006 scorecard. The scores compare U.S. average performance to rates achieved by top performers within the U.S. or internationally.

For more information, please visit The Commonwealth Fund Web site at www.commonwealthfund.org

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• quality
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