Medicaid Spending Projections

Medicaid

If you are like a sizable portion of the population, sometime in the next 20 years you will be affected by the increases in Medicaid spending.  Spending for long-term care for elderly and disabled people under the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor will total $3.7 trillion in the next two decades, according to the report by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group.  That includes $1.6 trillion projected to be spent by individual U.S. states and $2.1 trillion in federal money, according to the report. Long-term care includes nursing homes and in-home care for people unable to live independently.[1]

Medicaid spending will increase by an estimated 5.8% in fiscal year 2008, compared with 6.6% in FY 2007, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Governors Association and theNational Association of State Budget Officers, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to the survey, all states in the past five years have implemented measures to limit Medicaid spending, “with the majority centered on freezing or reducing provider payments and managing prescription drug costs.” However, the survey found that Medicaid accounts for 22% of state spending and “continues to constrict state budgets as it has for many years.”

With these expansive increases in medicaid spending it is apparent that the current condition of the health care system is in disrepair and needs to be addressed immediately.  The next political regime that takes office will be required to correct this broken system in order to maintain an organized governmental solution.