superrific
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You've been duped. That chart is complete bullshit.This chart would make any reasonable person understand we have to have changes. This level of increase isn’t sustainable.
1. Medicaid was completely altered in 2010, as it became a vehicle for Obamacare's attempt at universal coverage. The expanded coverage was not implemented until 2013 and not fully until 2015 or 2016. So anything about Medicaid before that point is irrelevant. You need to start at 2015, or 2013 at the earliest. And let's see, starting in 2015, the program grew a total of 14% over 4 years, which is pretty fucking sustainable. And note: that increase included states expanding their Medicaid program to take advantage of the federal subsidies -- several states, e.g., Missouri, opted into Obamacare in those years.
So, accounting for inflation and program growth, it was essentially flat for those years. Then, 2020 saw an increase in Medicaid spending. Hmm. Have any theories as to why? 2021? 2022?
2. What that chart is showing is:
A. Tens of millions of Americans got health insurance from Obamacare, and many of those did so through a program called Medicaid;
B. Medical expenses went up during Covid.
That's all. There's nothing at all unsustainable about it. In fact, IIRC the per capita Medicaid cost dropped as a result of Obamacare. So more people got better insurance at better prices. That's exactly what we predicted Obamacare to do; that's exactly what happened; and no idiotic framing on a chart can change that.
3. BTW health payments are supposed to go up in a recession. That's a feature, not a bug. When you look at the impact of social safety net programs, you'll see that their expenditures start to increase even in advance of a recession, and definitely through the recession. This is considered the #1 best anti-recession government program, as it delivers needed stimulus at exactly the time it's needed -- before the recession cuts too deep. We don't complain about the amount of unemployment being paid out during a recession -- well, we didn't used to, until the GOP got it in their heads -- because that's the entire point of it. And it keeps the downturn from getting worse, automatically.