Study: States spending on Medicaid jumped 29% this year

New research from the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that with federal stimulus funds expiring, states are having to spend more of their own money on Medicaid (Source: “State spending on Medicaid up sharply,” Washington Post, Oct. 27, 2011).

The annual 50-state survey of Medicaid budgets found that states, on average, are spending 29 percent more on Medicaid in the current fiscal year.

“We’re on an unsustainable path,” said Mike Schrimpf, communications director for the Republican Governors Association. “Every year Medicaid takes up a greater share of most state budgets. . . . Every dollar spent on Medicaid necessarily comes out of somewhere else, so it’s taking away from every other item in the budget.”

To learn more about Ohio’s Medicaid program, please see HPIO’s Ohio Medicaid Basics 2011.