Policy Funding – Medicaid

Policy Funding – Medicaid

Medicaid is a healthcare policy that was enacted and funded by the legislature, executive, and judiciary in 1965. The policy was created under the Social Security Amendments of 1965 with the intention of helping senior citizens, Americans living with disabilities, and families with children and pregnant mothers from low-income backgrounds access care at subsidized rates (Allen et al., 2021). Currently, Medicaid limits patient eligibility from state to state, but this scenario tightens during financial crises experienced in the United States.

Over the years, the funding for Medicaid has fluctuated, primarily when the country is undergoing an economic crisis. In such cases, the three levels of government mentioned above agree to cut spending on Medicaid in several ways. For instance, when the legislature, judiciary, and executive levels of the federal government have a budget shortfall because of financial crises, many states limit eligibility for Medicaid (Cliff et al., 2021). In severe scenarios, the funding for Medicaid excludes essential benefits, such as long-term care for senior citizens, antenatal clinics for pregnant women, and immunization for children. In some instances, the funding for Medicaid limits payments to medical care providers, such as hospitals.

Currently, the federal government has increased funding for the above healthcare policy by 6.2% under the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage. This increase was prompted by the need to help families that were impacted by COVID-19 under the Corona Virus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (Arone-Dine et al., 2020). However, the mentioned fiscal relief will be effective temporarily, as many Americans lost their jobs during the pandemic. In the future, the high unemployment rates will cause a spike in people eligible for Medicaid, and the number of enrollees will increase. Thus, the current funding for Medicaid will need to be doubled so as to handle the issue above.

References

Allen, H., Gordon, S. H., Lee, D., Bhanja, A., & Sommers, B. D. (2021). Comparison of utilization, costs, and quality of Medicaid vs subsidized private health insurance for low-income adults. JAMA Network Open, 4(1), e2032669. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.32669

Arone-Dine, A., Schubel, J., Solomon, J., Broaddus, M., & Hayes, K. (2020, May 5). Larger, Longer-Lasting Increases in Federal Medicaid Funding Needed to Protect Coverage. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/larger-longer-lasting-increases-in-federal-medicaid-funding-needed-to-protect

Cliff, B., Miller, S., Kullgren, J., Ayanian, J., & Hirth, R. (2021). Adverse selection in Medicaid: Evidence from discontinuous program rules. American Journal of Health Economics, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.3386/w28762

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Policy Funding – Medicaid

Find a policy that is funded at all three levels. Analyze how that funding has changed over time. What does it mean for public management, and what will the future provisions of the services be? Explain and give examples.