A fascinating look at state Medicaid spending. As it turns out, Medicaid seems to have been the most effective health insurance in the country when it comes to cost control. In 2000, inflation-adjusted Medicaid spending was $5,956 per enrollee. By 2010, that figure had increased, but only to $6,254 per enrollee, a cumulative increase of just 5% over 10 years. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted National Health Expenditures per capita (which includes spending from all types of insurance) increased from $6,262 in 2000 to $8,726 in 2010, a 39% increase. The rate of growth of Medicaid spending (per-enrollee), at 5%, was considerably lower than that of Real GDP, at 20.8745%. And in 2000, national health expenditures were 13.4% of GDP (theyre about 17.6% of GDP now). So if national health expenditures had grown at the same rate as Medicaid per-enrollee spending from 2000 to 2010, then national health care spending would have dropped from 13.4% of GDP in 2000 to about 11.3% of GDP in 2010. Which would have put us close to OECD average levels of health care spending. This would also have very likely erased any problems with the long-term federal deficit.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:09:17 +0000
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