Sen. Harkin: New State-By-State Report On Health Care Disparities Underscores The Need For Reform

Fixing The Medicare Inequities In Iowa

October 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee, today issued the following statement on a new report showing state-by-state disparities in health care. The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System’s second state scorecard showed the cost and quality of health care, as well as access to care and health outcomes, continue to vary widely among states.

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The report found that several states in the Upper Midwest—Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota—were all providing high quality care at lower cost. Despite this success, Harkin said this pointed to just another reason why we need national reform and to fix the inequities in Medicare reimbursement that hurt Iowa.

“This report is just the latest in a long line of research proving that reform cannot wait. Each day, more and more Americans find themselves without coverage, businesses see health insurance as out of reach for their employees and patients go uneducated about the preventative steps they can take to keep them well in the first place. With disparities this large in the system from state-to-state; we need to act now to increase access to quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans.

“We know that Iowa provides some of the highest quality care in the country. This is evident by the fact that our state ranked #2 overall in this survey. Yet providers in our state are reimbursed by Medicare at a lower rate than other providers elsewhere. The reform measures currently moving through Congress offer provisions to address that disparity and they are long overdue. I intend to fight to ensure that these measures are included in the final bills that are considered and fix this long standing inequity in payment due to geography.

“All signs are pointing toward the need for reform this year and that is exactly what we intend to deliver.”

The report, Aiming Higher: Results from the 2009 State Scorecard on Health System Performance, is a follow-up to the Commission’s 2007 State Scorecard report; it ranks states on 38 indicators in the areas of access, prevention/treatment quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, healthy lives and equity. In 2009, Vermont, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine and New Hampshire lead the nation as top performers on a majority of scorecard indicators. Leading states set new, higher benchmarks on a majority of indicators. A full copy of the report can be found here: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/

Source: Senator Tom Harkin