As the state deliberates Medicaid expansion, policymakers are likely to discuss options for containing Medicaid cost growth as well. In 2012, CRC published Options for Managing Medicaid Funding and Cost Growth, a report that discusses revenue and expenditure trends and provides policymakers with both revenue and expenditure side options to sustain Medicaid.
The legislature is currently debating a bill that would expand Medicaid to individuals and families at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty line. The Medicaid expansion was passed as part of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and in 2012, the Supreme Court effectively made this component optional. Medicaid is a means tested health insurance program that is co-financed by the federal and state governments. Medicaid spending consumed 15 percent of state resources in fiscal year 2012 making this program an important element in a healthy state budget. Approximately 20 percent of Michigan’s population relies on Medicaid as a primary source of emergency and preventative health care services.