This report outlines state data on economic impact, health coverage of the non-elderly population, poor and low-income uninsured, Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and health care financing.

From the report:

Pursuing national health care reform remains a priority for the President, Congress and the public. Policy-makers have committed to passing comprehensive legislation by the end of the year. Expanding coverage to the uninsured as well as addressing health care cost and quality issues have emerged as the dominant drivers for systematic reform. Leading health reform proposals rely on a combination of public and private approaches to expand coverage, control costs and improve quality with shared responsibilities across employees, employers, government, consumers and insurers.

In the absence of strong federal leadership, states began to expand coverage to reform their health care systems to address the growing number of uninsured residents in their state. By 2008, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont enacted universal coverage plans for all of their residents and some other states have proposed comprehensive reform. However, state fiscal capacity, structural deficits and now a worsening economy and severe state budget shortfalls have limited states’ ability to further advance coverage initiatives. While we can learn from the experiences of pacesetting states to inform future federal action, the fiscal crisis makes it difficult for many states to achieve health care reform on their own.

As the health reform debate progresses, the impact of reform on individual states will vary based on their economic situation, current health insurance coverage, and health care expenditures. This analysis pulls together key information related to state variation.

Full report:  State Variation and Health Reform: A Chartbook (PDF | 2.21 MB)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2009). State variation and health reform: a chartbook.