Quorum Report, July 24, 2006

Costs have doubled in last ten years

States faced with a funding shortfall under Medicaid – and almost half the states are expected to declare some kind of shortfall this year – will only stem the tide of red ink by taking more control of the design of their own programs, a panel of health care experts told attendees at the American Legislative Exchange Council in San Francisco.

The cost of Medicaid has doubled in the last decade, a price that fiscal conservatives point out is only exacerbated by the federal match aspects of the health care program. Most states have handled the growing cost by either freezing physician reimbursement rates or cutting back on prescription benefits, but both strategies are short-term and short-sighted, says John Graham of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute.

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Copyright July 24, 2006 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved