What Would Block-Granting Medicaid Mean for Low-Income Americans?
<p>The steep rise in Medicaid enrollment over the decades has reflected the health care program’s crucial role as “first responder” in the wake of economic recession, eroding employer-sponsored coverage, and public health crises. But fear of high cost growth has led some to call for reengineering Medicaid funding by setting strict limits on total annual spending—regardless of the numbers who enroll—or establishing per person spending limits.</p>
<p>In a new Commonwealth Fund issue brief, Medicaid expert Sara Rosenbaum and colleagues at George Washington University argue that abandoning the flexible financing approach of the past 50 years would divorce Medicaid funding from the real-life needs of low-income Americans.</p>
<p>In the brief, the authors examine how turning Medicaid into a block-grant program or imposing spending caps would likely affect eligibility, benefits, and states’ ability to meet their low-income residents’ health care needs.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2016/nov/block-grant-medicaid-low-income Read the brief