Medicaid/SCHIP: Spending and Budgets
States play a major role in the delivery and financing of health care in the United States, primarily through the Medicaid program, which is the second-largest program in state budgets. Since 2001, state revenues have fallen dramatically at the same time that Medicaid spending has increased. States’ deteriorating fiscal conditions have placed major pressure on states to implement ways to reduce spending growth in their Medicaid programs. In fiscal years 2003 and 2004, every state and the District of Columbia put in place new Medicaid cost containment strategies, including increasing beneficiary co-payments, restricting eligibility, limiting benefits and reducing payments to providers. The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured provides timely analysis of the changes states are making, including biennial 50-state surveys of states’ Medicaid cost containment activity, in-depth analysis of the factors behind Medicaid spending growth, and analytic perspectives on the driving forces behind the state budget crisis.