America Has a Health Care Spending Problem, Not a Medicaid Problem
Author:
Anne Dunkelberg /(512) 320-0222 x 102
May 15, 2012
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Associate Director Anne Dunkelberg testified before the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services May 8. The committee was hearing public testimony related to current and future spending cuts to the Texas Medicaid program. Her testimony stressed that Medicaid per capita costs have grown more slowly than either Medicare or private insurance, and that Texas Medicaid costs per enrollee have dropped over the last decade.
“America has a health care spending problem, not a Medicaid problem. In our national and state-level determination to get health care spending and government deficits under control, we must not make the mistake of targeting only Medicaid spending. Solutions to control the U.S. health spending growth must not be pursued on the backs of the poorest and weakest among us. Health care costs for Medicare and privately insured Americans are growing faster than for Medicaid. Focusing cost controls on Medicaid alone isn’t just wrong—it won’t work.”