Deep-seated racial and ethnic disparities in health care access, quality, and outcomes persist across all U.S. states

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund,  Advancing Racial Equity in U.S. Health Care: The Commonwealth Fund 2024 State Health Disparities Report, evaluates states on 25 measures of health care access, quality, service use, and health outcomes for Black, white, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations. The report is part of the foundation’s ongoing series examining state health system performance, with data collection and analytic support from the Center for Evidence-based Policy.   

Among the key findings:

• The health care divide is especially stark when it comes to premature deaths: American Indian and Black people die from preventable and treatable causes at substantially higher rates than other groups.
• Health care experiences for people of color vary widely across states. For example, health systems in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Alaska perform worst for American Indian people, while North Carolina’s health system performs best.
• Disparities exist in every state, even those often recognized for having otherwise high performing on health care systems.

The report offers an overview of the disparities people of color face across states’ health care systems, and individual state profiles provide detailed information that policy, health care, and community leaders in each state can use to identify targeted opportunities for improvement.