From: Child and Family Policy Center, Des Moines, IA

Iowa received a top ranking overall on a Commonwealth Fund state scorecard on child health system performance released Wednesday, May 28th. (See article above, in To Your Health.)

“Iowa lawmakers and health providers have a right to be proud of Iowa’s top ranking, but more work needs to be done,” said Charles Bruner, Director of the Child and Family Policy Center. Bruner indicated that Iowa’s top ranking among states is attributed, in many respects, to the concerted efforts taken by lawmakers and health care providers in Iowa to strengthen both access to and quality of child health services.

At the same time, however, Iowa’s high ranking on access to health insurance still leaves 7.4% of children below 200% of poverty, and 5.6% of all children, uninsured, approximately 50,000 children overall.

“These figures would rank Iowa at the bottom on an international list, if we were compared with Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and other European countries. The actions taken by the Governor and General Assembly this session have set a framework for covering all children, but achieving this goal will required concerted implementation efforts to achieve,” Bruner continued.

Two areas where the Commonwealth Fund rankings indicate Iowa needs special attention are the equity of health access and coverage by race/ethnicity, where Iowa ranked 29th, and the provision of preventive dental care, where Iowa ranked 39th.

“Iowa can draw upon the experiences of other states to improve health access by race/ethnicity and to ensure preventive oral healthcare visits,” said Carrie Fitzgerald, CFPC senior health associate. “For instance, nineteen states cover legal immigrant children without a five-year waiting period now imposed by Medicaid and hawk-i. Hispanic children, in particular, are those in Iowa most likely to be without health coverage and in need of primary care. Iowa has strong state leadership in promoting child oral healthcare, through Dr. Bob Russell in the Iowa Department of Health, but we need to do more work to ensure children have access to care.”

The Child and Family Policy Center is a partner in the state Off to a Good Start Coalition of child health policy providers, researchers, and advocates that has provided detailed policy recommendations to improve the quality of Iowa’s child health system. “The Off to a Good Start Coalition is evidence of the ability of Iowans to work together to improve health policy,” Carrie Fitzgerald stated. “Though we have much to proud of in this report, we must continue to improve our system and serve as a model for the country in providing primary, preventive, and developmental health services to all Iowa children.”

For more information, contact: Carrie Fitzgerald,
Senior Health Policy Associate
Child and Family Policy Center
218 6th Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-280-9027

52808

carrief@cfpciowa.org