How does your state’s healthcare rank?

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The cost of healthcare, quality of healthcare, access to healthcare and overall outcomes related to healthcare ... they vary from state to state. Surprised? No. Interested in the details? The Commonwealth Fund is here for you.

Its second state scorecard ranks all the states on a variety of health-related measures and estimates the lives and money that could be saved with improvement.

Vermont, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine and New Hampshire are singled out as doing a pretty darned good job overall. California, on the other hand, ranks 31st overall -- moving up from 40th in 2007. The state didn’t fare well in the prevention and treatment category, but in factors summed up under ‘healthy lives,’ it ranked fifth.

The summary stresses, on the downside, the state of insurance coverage for adults and rising healthcare costs and, on the upside, improvements in children’s coverage.

-- Tami Dennis