If enrollment in North Carolina’s Medicaid programs spike…?

Rate of Enrollment in Medicaid Rose Rapidly

 

The recession is driving up enrollment in Medicaid at higher than expected rates, threatening gargantuan state budget gaps…

 

The annual survey…found that Medicaid had been spared the worst effects of massive state budget shortfalls because of federal aid in the stimulus package. But it also revealed grave concerns about what will happen when that aid ends at the close of [fiscal] 2010. [NC, July 31, 2010]

 

…The states and the federal government share the $333 billion annual cost of Medicaid…

 

The Kaiser survey found that the growth in spending on Medicaid in 2009, at 7.9 percent, exceeded the growth in enrollment and was the highest in five years.

 

That number also may increase this year…three-fourths of them said they already fear those outlays will not be enough and that lawmakers will need to alter their budgets, either by finding more money or, more likely, by cutting benefits or payments to doctors and hospitals.

 

Kevin Sack

New York Times, October 1, 2009