|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Financial Inc.
When it comes to Washington's 2005 debate on health care, one thing is certain: Medicaid will be on the table. What's less clear is whether the most important questions will even be asked, let alone answered.
Propelled by federal worries that rising Medicaid spending takes too big a bite from the national budget, discussion is likely to focus on small-picture, one-shot ways to trim federal taxpayers' Medicaid contribution, analysts predict. A spate of recent reports and briefings lay out some of the bigger-picture questions that may be ignored if federal budget cutting is lawmakers' overwhelming concern.
Following are some top issues being raised by analysts as debate begins.
* Dwindling employer-sponsored coverage has pushed more onto Medicaid rolls ... and pushed costs up. Medicaid often is tarred with the brush of "wasteful, big spender," but in recent years, at least, rising cost trends have been due mostly to enrollment growth caused by economic woes rather than profligate spending. That's the conclusion of an analysis by Urban Institute health policy chief John Holahan published last month on the Health Affairs Web site.
From 2000 through 2003, Medicaid enrollment by aged and disabled people grew by around 2.0 percent annually, says Holahan in the most recent of his series of analyses of Medicaid spending, this one examining data up through 2003.
But enrollment growth was much higher for families and children during the period, reflecting both the recession in the early part of the decade and the continuing decline in employer-sponsored coverage. Enrollment by families increased by 11.6 percent between 2000 and 2002 and grew by 7.1 percent between 2002 and 2003.
Among other...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
