Recession ballooned Medicaid rolls

As the economy was stuck squarely in the economic doldrums during 2009, people who lost their jobs — and their private health insurance — joined the Medicaid program in droves, driving a 22 percent increase in federal spending on the program, according to the latest National Health Expenditures report.

“Rising unemployment and rapid increases in Medicaid enrollment — two direct effects of the recession — were the main contributors to a sharp acceleration in Medicaid spending growth,” the report, published by Health Affairs, found.

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The report shows that spending on health care — both private and public — rose by a scant 4 percent in 2009, the second lowest annual increase since 1960.

Despite this, some sectors saw accelerated health spending, including a whopping 10 percent bump for home health care, an 8.3 percent increase in other residential and personal care and 5.3 percent for prescription drugs. This all resulted in an annual increase in health spending to $2.5 trillion. While spending growth slowed in 2009, it nonetheless consumed a greater piece of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product: 17.6 percent in 2009, up from 16.6 percent in 2008.

Often blamed for rising health care costs, the insurance industry urged Congress to act on the ominous findings in the report.

“The continued rise in health care costs is not sustainable,” said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans. “Rising health care costs threaten our economic competitiveness, make health care coverage less affordable, and crowd out other urgent national priorities. We urge policymakers to work on a bipartisan basis to pass reforms that will control the soaring cost of medical care.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) used the report’s findings to try and bolster the effort to “repeal and replace” the health reform law.

“The American people were unambiguous in their call for lower health care costs and smaller government,” McConnell said. “Yet instead of taking commonsense steps to lower costs, Democrats in Washington jammed through a massive government expansion that their own experts acknowledge will increase health costs. We need to repeal this massive bill and replace it with commonsense, step-by-step reforms that actually lower costs and encourage job growth. The House will take the first step in that process next week, and I hope the Senate will soon follow suit with a vote of its own.”

Obama administration officials, however, continue to suggest the Affordable Care Act saves approximately $143 billion over 10 years, and point to the official Congressional Budget Office estimates of the law.

In addition to increased enrollment, the Medicaid spending jump was also a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which funneled $34 billion to the states in the form of an increased Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP). In comparison, the federal share of Medicaid spending in 2008 – prior to passage of the stimulus package in early 2009 — was $7 billion.

If medicaid is lost, contagious diseases will go untreated threatening all of us, left ant right. Try to think things through more clearly. Can we afford to let TB and other contagious diseases run rampid?

All I know is that the Health Industry is an INDUSTRY and hospitals and docs alike are in it for $$$$$. If you have good insurance......they're gonna f--- you up good to keep you there for as long as they possibly can.

And if you go anywhere in Ohio to get anything "cosmetic" done,,,,they're going to make you waaaay worse before they'r going to make you better.

Their motto is f--- up before the fix up to get the most out of the insurance and absolutely soak people dry. I know this is happening in Ohio and you're better off if you have NO insurance than if you have really good insurance. They're raping the insurance companies here.