Via Sara Kliff, the Commonwealth Fund has released its annual national score card on the U.S. health system performance. The overall score for 2011 is 64 out of a possible 100, a three point loss from last year.

And the overall assessment, which isn’t pretty.

U.S. health system performance continues to fall far short of what is attainable, especially given the enormity of public and private resources devoted nationally to health. Across 42 performance indicators, the U.S. achieves a total score of 64 out of a possible 100, when comparing national rates with domestic and international benchmarks. Overall, the U.S. failed to improve relative to these benchmarks, which in many cases rose. Costs were up sharply, access to care deteriorated, health system efficiency remained low, disparities persisted, and health outcomes failed to keep pace with benchmarks. The Affordable Care Act targets many of the gaps identified by the Scorecard. […]

Of great concern, access to health care significantly eroded since 2006. As of 2010, more than 81 million working-age adults-44 percent of those ages 19 to 64-were uninsured during the year or underinsured, up from 61 million (35%) in 2003. Further, the U.S. failed to […]