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Reason #47 for Daugaard to Expand Medicaid: Effective Cost Control

By caheidelberger on 2013.09.23

Michael Larson offers excellent arguments for expanding Medicaid. He urges us to help Governor Dennis Daugaard make the right choice and take the Medicaid assistance the Affordable Care Act is offering.

O.K. Check out this chart, Dennis:

real health care spending per enrollee - per capita 2001-2012
[Amitabh Chandra, Jonathan Holmes, and Jonathan Skinner, "Is This Time Different? The Slowdown in Healthcare Spending," Fall 2013 Brookings Panel on Economic Activity, September 19-20, 2013. Click to enlarge.]
Paul Krugman pulls this chart of real per capita and per enrollee health spending from this September 2013 Brookings paper by two Harvard profs and a Dartmouth dude. It shows that individuals with private health insurance or Medicare have spent more on health care since 2001. During the same period, spending on individuals with Medicaid has stayed flat.

In other words, Medicaid models cost control. Expanding Medicaid would provide poor working folks with coverage more efficiently than the private sector to which Governor Daugaard would rather throw them.

Come on, Dennis: you won't lose a single vote for expanding Medicaid. You might actually gain a few... from people who don't die because they can afford to go to the doctor.

caheidelberger

3 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2013.09.23

    I have a question Corey, could the gap between the purple line "private per enrollee" and the orange line "average private premium" be characterized as insurance company profit, or at the very least increase in insurance company overhead compared to actual medical costs?

  3. John 2013.09.24

    I personally know one couple that moved back to Minnesota because they can't afford private insurance, but, because they work, don't qualify for South Dakota health care programs. You just can't afford to be poor in south Dakota.

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