Two-thirds of the people who use Medicaid are poor children, but two-thirds of the money is for long-term care for seniors, whether in a facility or at home.
During an appearance at a fiscal policy summit in Washington, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., delved into who – and what — the Medicaid program pays for. Medicaid, the federal-state program that serves many poor Americans, is one of several mandatory spending programs putting pressure on the federal budget. At roughly 6:48 in this video, Pelosi said, "Two-thirds of the people who use Medicaid are poor children, but two-thirds of the money is for long-term care for seniors, whether in a facility or at home." Is this accurate? No — as Pelosi’s office quickly clarified after PolitiFact inquired. See Figure 3 on PolitiFact.com Pelosi "misspoke," said Henry Connelly, Pelosi’s deputy communications director. Connelly clarified that she should have said that "children are close to half of Medicaid enrollees" and said she "inverted" the statistic about long-term care spending. "It’s not that two-thirds of Medicaid goes to long-term care, it’s that two-thirds of long-term care is paid for by Medicaid," citing data posted by the Alliance for Retired Americans. (To be precise, according to the group, the share of long-term care costs paid by Medicaid was 62 percent in 2015.) Let’s take a closer look at the actual data for age and long-term care spending. Children accounted for 48 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries in 2013, not the two-thirds Pelosi initially said. The percentage may have changed somewhat following the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but experts said they did not expect there to have been a dramatic shift. Here’s the full breakdown: See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com As for long-term care costs as a share of Medicaid spending, it’s quite a bit less than the two-thirds Pelosi cited. In 2016, various types of long-term care accounted for 21.4 percent of all Medicaid spending. See Figure 2 on PolitiFact.com Our ruling Pelosi said, "Two-thirds of the people who use Medicaid are poor children, but two-thirds of the money is for long-term care for seniors, whether in a facility or at home." Her office acknowledged that she misspoke. She overstated both the percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries who are children, and the percentage of Medicaid spending devoted to long-term care. We rate the statement False. See Figure 4 on PolitiFact.com
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