Medicaid Enrollment and Health Care Costs – Minnesota

Medicaid numbers spike in Minnesota, By Warren Wolfe, June 13, 2012, Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The number of Minnesotans on Medicaid shot up at nearly twice the national rate over the past two years, while state costs soared by 40 percent to surpass $4 billion for the first time. There now are about 733,000 Minnesotans in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor — called Medical Assistance in Minnesota — an increase of 125,000 in two years, according to a new federal study. While the weakened economy explains most of the rising Medicaid rolls in other states, much of Minnesota’s increase came when Gov. Mark Dayton expanded the program by 80,000 people last year under an option in the federal Affordable Care Act, the law now facing U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny. Nationwide, the massive and growing Medicaid budget — $450 billion this year . . .”