The decline on the state revenue and an increase on the enrollment rates are imposing significant burdens on the government budgets; how can we address the problem without jeopardizing the goals of the program? It was established that the increasing Medicaid costs are mainly due to increasing individuals enrolling for the program, increase in the provider payments and an overall increase in healthcare prices in the United States. The complexity of the problem of the Medicaid costs in the US is worsened by the decreasing state revenue. The possible solutions identified in the paper included cutting the Medicaid costs, raising the taxes and using reforms in the Medicaid program. The paper justified the use of Medicaid reforms as an effective solution for addressing the challenges of rising Medicaid costs.
MEDICAID COSTS AND CUTS
Problem statement
Medicaid costs are increasingly taking a relatively larger
share of the federal and state budgets in the nation. With the
decline in the state and federal revenue, the Medicaid costs for a
single enrollee have been on the increase over a last decade. The
National Governors Association referred to the rising Medicaid
expenditures as a fiscal crisis in the states (Galewitz, 2010).
From a nationwide perspective, Medicaid and other healthcare
services take up 30 percent of the state budgets, which is
resulting an extreme strain on the state budgets. An increase in
the Medicaid costs poses significant shortfalls in the Medicaid
expenditure at the state level. Without the implementation of
effective reforms, Medicaid costs are threatening to consume a
greater share of the budgets adopted by the states, which in turn
may affect other items in the budgets. It is projected that in 20
years, Medicaid has the potential of putting the states to
bankruptcy (Cutler & Mark, 2000). The problem with Medicaid
expenditure at the state level is worsened by the effects of the
recent recession on the revenues of the states, which are
relatively lower compared to the pre-recession levels. A notable
trend is the increasing fiscal pressure on the Medicaid costs and
the increasing number of enrollees for the program and cases of
dual eligibility are exerting significant pressure on the Medicaid
costs (Hadley, 2003). This largely attributed to the ongoing
challenge associated with the expansion of the Medicaid program
since its introduction, increasing the burden on the state and
federal budgets due to the fact that Medicaid costs are increasing
amid declines in the revenue levels of the states, forcing the
state governments to reduce the expenditure on Medicaid. This
implies that the adequate policy response to the issues and
challenges associated with Medicaid costs requires a comprehensive
review of the problem. How did the Medicaid program reach to its
present condition? The decline on the state revenue and an increase
on the enrollment rates are imposing significant burdens on the
government budgets; how can we address the problem without
jeopardizing the goals of the program?
Literature Review
The post The main purpose of this paper was to identify the problems associated with increasing costs of Medicaid expenditures in the United States. Medicaid spending usually takes up a significant proportion of the state budgets. The problem statement aimed at analyzing how the Medicaid program reached to its present condition? appeared first on Owl Essays.
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