Enrollment in and spending on Medicaid programs both increased during this past fiscal year, according to new research from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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For states that expanded Medicaid, costs for behavior health and for uncompensated care in hospitals are paid for by the federal government up until 2020, when states will begin to pick up 10 percent of the costs.
A survey of Medicaid directors in all 50 states showed that Medicaid expansion states only saw a 3.4 percent increase in state Medicaid spending growth compared to non-expansion states like North Carolina that experienced on average a 6.9 percent increase in state spending growth. And nearly all of the additional spending was covered by federal funds, which are paying the entire cost of expanding Medicaid through 2016 and at least 90 percent thereafter. With slow but steady improvements in the economy following the Great Recession, Medicaid programs across the country were focused on implementing a myriad of changes included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), pursuing innovative delivery and payment system reforms with the goals of assuring access, improving quality and achieving budget certainty, and continuing to administer this increasingly complex program.
In states that had not expanded Medicaid, enrollment grew a relatively modest 5.1 percent, and spending 6.1 percent, during the same period.
The Republican Party has become a “a midterm party” that struggles with the presidential elections. Part of the reason for the greated spending also can be traced to provider rate increases and the high cost of prescription drugs, the report adds.
The latest attempt to help low-income Utahns get health insurance was dead on arrival Tuesday, as House Republicans dealt the proposal a crushing blow, sending state leaders back to the drawing board and leaving tens of thousands of people without hope for health care for the foreseeable future.
Earlier this month, an independent consultant in Arkansas reported that ending Medicaid expansion would have a “substantial cost” for the state.
In California, about 12 million people are enrolled in the Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal. That’s up nearly 21 percent from two years ago.
States will have to start chipping in more over the next few years.
Following the release of third quarter figures, the campaigns try to spin the reports.
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However, these changes to Medicaid policy take place in the larger context of states budgets. “I think they now see getting rid of [Medicaid] is going to be a hardship”.
