Medicaid Is Costing States More Money Than Expected - Also Medicare Doesn't Really Work Anyway

Gee, who could have possibly predicted that a government program would be more expensive than originally forecast?

Before President Obama's law expanded Medicaid eligibility, millions of people who were already entitled to its safety-net coverage were not enrolled. Those same people are now signing up in unexpectedly high numbers, partly because of publicity about getting insured under the law.

For states red or blue, the catch is that they must use more of their own money to cover this particular group.

You know, there are lots of folks who are arguing for South Carolina to expand Medicaid because it's "free money" from the federal government. As seems to now be the case, South Carolina's Medicaid expenses are going to be going up anyway.

This also doesn't address the more important fact that Medicaid doesn't actually improve medical outcomes for people relative to being uninsured.

Ultimately, the authors concluded that, “This randomized, controlled study showed that Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured health outcomes in the first two years, but it did increase use of health services, raise rates of diabetes detection and management, lower rates of depression, and reduce financial strain.”

So, the study suggests that expanding Medicaid is one way of reducing financial pressure on low-income groups, but it’s costly and does not improve their health.

Another interesting finding was that though medical spending increased among Medicaid enrollees due to more prescription drug usage and doctors’ visits, the study “did not find significant changes in visits to the emergency department or hospital admissions.” This undercuts another favorite talking point of liberals, which is that expanding insurance actually saves money by reducing costly emergency room visits.

But hey, for some people, the only way to improve a failing government program is to enlarge it.