Report: Recession Will Trigger Huge Medicaid Bill
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:39 PM
By: Dave Eberhart

As millions of unemployed Americans lose private health coverage in the recession, Medicaid, the national health program, will absorb a huge financial hit, according to a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report.

In fact, say HHS analysts, spending on health care in the U.S. could double by 2017, reaching $4.3 trillion and accounting for 19.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Program spending will ramp up 9.6 percent from $352 billion last year to $386 billion this year, concluded HHS experts.

“Our expectation is that growth in health spending is expected to be steady over the projection, which is 2007 through 2017, at 6.7 percent per year,â€