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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2008;300(2):159.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The quality of health care systems for children differs widely across the United States, according to a report released May 28.

The report, US Variations In Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard (available at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=687113), ranks the states based on 13 indicators of child health system performance, grouped into 5 categories: access, quality, costs, equity, and potential of the state’s children to lead healthy lives. The report, issued by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health care issues, compared the care systems of all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The researchers argued that if all states reached benchmarks achieved in the top-performing states, an additional 4.6 million children would have health insurance; 11.8 million more children would get their recommended annual medical and dental checkups; 1.6 million fewer children would be at risk for developmental delays; and almost 800 000 . . . [Full Text of this Article]