Medicaid An Important And Costly Government Program

Jesse Smith Policy Brief Econ 471 11/24/2015 Dear Congressman Duncan, Medicaid is both an extremely important and costly government program. The program provides medical care for those who cannot afford it and also for the elderly and the disabled. Over 69 million people were provided medical assistance through Medicaid in the fiscal year of 2011 (Herz). Medical attention is very expensive but is also something that every human being needs. Some people are individually wealthy enough to afford medical insurance. Most people are provided medical insurance through their employer. So what are those people who are unemployed and not independently wealthy supposed to do? If you have no job you have no insurance through your employer†¦show more content†¦Essentially they give states funding for something such as community development and the money must be spent in that general policy area but the allocation of funds is up to the states. Block grants are the better system for funding Medicaid for a lot of reasons, but the two biggest are the massive flaws of the current system, and the increased efficiency that would result from block grant funding that would decrease the crowding out of spending on other government responsibilities. Education and health are supposed to be the two largest drivers of development. Medicaid is currently the largest expenditure for almost every single state, which in turn crowds out funding for things like education, transportation, and other government funded activities. Around 2009 government expenditure on Medicaid passed up expenditure on K-12 education. Unfortunately spending didn’t just become so extreme for Medicaid that it passed education at its highest level, we see the increased spending on Medicaid goes hand in had with decreased spending on education (Howard). Medicaid spending is rising faster than tax revenues. The money has to come from somewhere, and since increased taxes are not always an option because of political and other pressures s pending must be reduced in other areas. Federal government currently funds Medicaid on a matching system. There is no limit on how much aid the government will