Thursday, March 03, 2005
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center: U.S. is "way in excess of the government controlling more than one half of the [health care] market"
[Gail Russell Chaddock, "Medicaid: the 'monster in the road'," The Christian Science Monitor, 3 March 2005.]
This is an excellent companion piece to the article below on Europe's search for privatization ideas in the U.S. Government spending on health care is rising relative to private spending, and if changes aren't made we will follow down the same path Europeans are now trying to return from:
Launched in 1965 to provide healthcare for low-income women and children, Medicaid has since expanded into the largest health and long-term care program - a symbol of the increasing role of government in paying the nation's health bills.
While private funding covered some 75 percent of health costs in 1965, public funding is expected to count for half of national health spending by 2014, according to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Some experts say that threshold has already been reached.
In addition to its own spending, government also pays the nation's health bill by the subsidies it offers for health-related expenses in the tax code, now approaching $200 billion. When you add in the subsidies, "you're way in excess of the government controlling more than one half of the market," said Eugene Steuerle, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at a recent briefing.
Medicaid enrollment has jumped 40 percent in the last five years, at a time when state revenues were dropping. For the first time, Medicaid now tops education as the leading draw on state budgets.
[Michael Bond and Matthew Hisrich, "Medicaid Lessons From Former Communists," The Wichita Independent Business Association Newsletter, February 2005.]
[Gail Russell Chaddock, "Medicaid: the 'monster in the road'," The Christian Science Monitor, 3 March 2005.]
This is an excellent companion piece to the article below on Europe's search for privatization ideas in the U.S. Government spending on health care is rising relative to private spending, and if changes aren't made we will follow down the same path Europeans are now trying to return from:
Launched in 1965 to provide healthcare for low-income women and children, Medicaid has since expanded into the largest health and long-term care program - a symbol of the increasing role of government in paying the nation's health bills.
While private funding covered some 75 percent of health costs in 1965, public funding is expected to count for half of national health spending by 2014, according to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Some experts say that threshold has already been reached.
In addition to its own spending, government also pays the nation's health bill by the subsidies it offers for health-related expenses in the tax code, now approaching $200 billion. When you add in the subsidies, "you're way in excess of the government controlling more than one half of the market," said Eugene Steuerle, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at a recent briefing.
Medicaid enrollment has jumped 40 percent in the last five years, at a time when state revenues were dropping. For the first time, Medicaid now tops education as the leading draw on state budgets.
[Michael Bond and Matthew Hisrich, "Medicaid Lessons From Former Communists," The Wichita Independent Business Association Newsletter, February 2005.]
Comments:
Post a Comment
