Medicaid Enrollment and Spending

Posted on September 30, 2010 by townsend

• Medicaid rolls jumped in 2009, By Kevin Sack, September 30, 2010, New York Times: “Joblessness and the accompanying loss of health benefits drove an additional 3.7 million people into the Medicaid program last year, the largest single-year increase since the early days of the government insurance plan, according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Enrollment in the program, which provides comprehensive coverage to the low-income uninsured, grew by 8.2 percent from December 2008 to December 2009, the second-largest rate of increase in the 10 years that Kaiser has conducted the survey. There were 48.5 million people on Medicaid at the end of 2009, or about one of every six Americans. Every state showed enrollment growth, with nine above 15 percent and Nevada and Wisconsin above 20 percent…”
• Medicaid enrollment spikes to 48M in weak economy, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (AP), September 30, 2010, Washington Post: “A record number of Americans signed up for Medicaid last year, as the recession wiped out jobs and workplace health coverage. A report released Thursday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that enrollment in the safety-net medical insurance program jumped to more than 48 million – a record 15.7 percent share of the U.S. population. With the economy barely improving, states are forecasting a 6 percent increase in the rolls next year, meaning another strain on their cash-depleted budgets. The Medicaid numbers are the latest piece to emerge in a grim statistical picture of the recession’s toll. The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s last year, according to a recent Census report. Nearly 12 million households received food stamps, a record…”
• States cutting Medicaid benefits as they stagger under economic downturn, By Phil Galewitz, September 30, 2010, Kaiser Health News: “In Arizona, about 640,000 adult Medicaid recipients will lose coverage tomorrow for podiatry care, insulin pumps and most dental services. In Washington, D.C., in November, doctors who treat 250,000 Medicaid patients are scheduled to see their fees cut 20 percent. These are some of the newest cutbacks in Medicaid as states grapple with surging enrollment — and spending — in the government health insurance program for the poor that covers nearly 49 million Americans. Driven by the economic downturn, enrollment in the state-federal program rose by 8.5 percent in fiscal year 2010, which for most states ended in June, according to study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. State spending on Medicaid jumped an average of 8.8 percent in 2010, the biggest increase in eight years and the second biggest jump in two decades, the study found. The growing costs for Medicaid come as the faltering economy has stripped state tax revenues…”