Medicaid

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides medical care to nearly 70 million low-income individuals nationwide. It is a means-tested program that is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, including low-income adults, their children, and people with certain disabilities. Medicaid has expanded rapidly since its inception in 1965. This could possibly be linked to the program's financial structure, in which the federal government matches state spending. The incentives are so dysfunctional that states have inflated the cost of health care. • State expenditures on Medicaid have increased from 0.2 percent of tax revenues in 1966 to an estimated 21 percent in 2005. • In 1975, 10 percent of the U.S. population was enrolled in Medicaid, by 2008, 19 percent were enrolled. • In FY 2010, Medicaid surpassed elementary and secondary education as the largest component of total state spending. • ObamaCare will add 18 million people to Medicaid rolls. Even without reform, Medicaid spending may increase by as much as 50 percent in 10 years. This is an unsustainable model. State-by-State Insurance Information is available at this site.

Archive Related Items

Senate GOP Health Bill Would End ACA Penalties, Cut Taxes on High Incomes

6/23/17

from The Wall Street Journal,

6/22/17:

Legislation would cap states’ Medicaid funding, phase out program’s expansion.

Senate Republican leaders released a proposal Thursday that would undo major parts of the Affordable Care Act and transform a large part of the American health-care system by changing and cutting the funding for the Medicaid program. The bill would reverse the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, a move that could affect millions of people, and would for the first time limit states’ overall Medicaid funding from Washington. It also would eliminate the requirement in the 2010 law that most Americans sign up for health insurance, and provide instead less-robust tax credits than the ACA to help people afford insurance. It would repeal hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes on businesses and high-income households and retroactively cut taxes on capital gains. The Senate plan in many ways echoes a health bill passed by the House last month, but it contains several differences. It isn’t clear if those changes, such as the shape of the tax credits and a more gradual phasing-out of the Medicaid expansion, would be enough to attract more centrist Republicans without alienating the most conservative lawmakers in both chambers. The challenge quickly became evident when four GOP senators—Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky—said they couldn’t vote for the bill as it stood, though they were open to negotiation. A more centrist GOP senator, Dean Heller of Nevada, who faces re-election next year, said he had “serious concerns” about the bill, particularly its effect on Medicaid recipients.

Obamacare Gets Higher Marks Than House GOP Overhaul, Poll Finds.