Out of Control Medicaid Spending

 

The Republicans appear ready to cave on Medicaid spending, and leave the spending floodgates wide open. The following is a history of the astronomical growth of federal and state Medicaid spending.

A generation ago, in 2000, total federal and state Medicaid spending was $206 billion.

Remember the promises of how Obamacare was going to save money? In 2010, the year Obamacare was signed into law, total federal and state Medicaid spending was $402 billion.

In pre-COVID 2018 total federal and state Medicaid spending was $616 billion. Rather than save taxpayers money it cost us over 50 percent more in just 8 years.

In 2024 total state and federal Medicaid spending was $919 billion. Another near 50 percent increase in only 6 years, and over double what it was before Obamacare.

There are 133 million households in the US. Of course not all of them pay taxes, but it they did, in 2024 each household would have had to write the government a check for nearly $7,000 just to pay for Medicaid.

No doubt there are people who justifiably need help with medical expenses, but I can think of no valid reason that Medicaid, something that didn’t exist before 1965, should cost this much. There is no magic money tree in DC. The federal government gets its money from the same place state and local government does, the pockets of working taxpayers. I am certain that if the responsibility for providing healthcare to the needy was returned to State and Local government, including the responsibility to fund it, there would be a lot less wasteful spending.