Massachusetts overall performed well in its response to COVID, study finds

Massachusetts ranked second in a brand new examine that measures states’ general response to COVID-19.

“The primary vaccine grew to become out there to all states on the identical time in late 2020. States took totally different approaches to distributing doses to folks, particularly early on when vaccine provides have been restricted,” acknowledged the “Scorecard on State Well being System Efficiency,” a report launched Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, which discovered that solely Hawaii topped the Bay State in how properly it dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based basis that helps impartial analysis on well being care points, ranked all states based mostly on 56 measures of healthcare entry and high quality, service use and value, well being disparities and well being outcomes throughout 2020.

Within the states that moved quickest to get photographs in arms — Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine — 70% of the inhabitants age 12 and older had change into totally vaccinated inside 200 days of vaccine availability, the report stated. The worst-ranked have been Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

“Folks should be prepared to get the photographs,” stated David Radley, one of many report’s authors.

The stark toll of the pandemic goes properly past deaths from the virus itself. All states reported extra deaths than typical, from COVID in addition to different causes for the reason that pandemic started in February 2020.

Traditionally stronger well being programs like Massachusetts and Hawaii had the perfect well being outcomes, together with decrease charges of preventable deaths and general more healthy populations, the report stated.

Drug overdose deaths elevated to document highs in 2020, as folks coped with the pandemic and way more potent artificial opioids, corresponding to fentanyl, entered the drug provide.

Massachusetts ranked sixth within the proportion change from 2019 to 2020, with a roughly 5% change in overdose dying charges throughout that interval.

The Bay State, nevertheless, additionally ranked first within the nation when it got here to medical health insurance protection and entry to care. Massachusetts reported the bottom  price of uninsured adults at 3.6%.

However whereas well being protection held regular, use of well being companies declined. Spending per particular person in Medicare declined in all areas, reflecting steep drop-offs in well being care use amongst folks 65 and older.

In New England, spending dropped from simply over $10,000 in 2019 to simply below $9,500 in 2020.