States and Medicaid Costs

Posted on March 10, 2011 by townsend

• Will health care law raise states’ Medicaid costs?, By Tony Pugh, March 8, 2011, Miami Herald: “The nation’s Republican governors are raising a new complaint against the 2010 national health overhaul, which they deride as ‘Obamacare.’ They say it would drive up their Medicaid costs dramatically at a time they’re already slashing their budgets to cope with debt. There’s no question that the health care law will force states to expand their Medicaid services, but how that ultimately will affect states’ costs is a matter of considerable dispute. The 2010 law requires that state Medicaid programs in 2014 begin covering all non-elderly people who earn up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which would comprise people with incomes of up to $29,400 for a family of four this year. By 2019, that expansion is expected to add 16 million people to Medicaid, which now provides health coverage for about 60 million low-income Americans. Childless adults and parents who previously earned too much to qualify for the program will make up the bulk of the new enrollees…”
• To cap Medicaid, Florida looks to managed care, By Greg Allen, March 8, 2011, National Public Radio: “In Tallahassee, Florida’s Legislature has one overriding goal this session: to close a $4.5 billion budget shortfall. And one of the key programs it is targeting for cuts is Medicaid. In Florida and every other state, the program, which provides health insurance for the needy, makes up a big chunk of the annual budget. In reforming the program, Florida hopes to save $1 billion in what it spends on Medicaid. When he introduced a plan recently to overhaul Medicaid, the head of Florida’s Senate, Republican Mike Haridopolos, said that his first two goals were improving the quality of care and improving the access to care. ‘Then and only then,’ he said, ‘we start looking at costs.’ But in fact, there is really one thing driving elected officials in Florida and elsewhere to take a hard look at Medicaid – and that’s the price tag. Ten years ago in Florida, Medicaid cost $9 billion. By last year, it had risen to more than $22 billion. More than half of that cost is picked up by the federal government. Even so, Florida’s share still amounts to nearly one-third of the state’s budget…”