Medicaid Expansion Moves Low-Income Children to the Back of the Line (Guest: Charles Blahous)

Health Care News Podcast

Now that Obamacare has been in effect for eight years, data is showing that Medicaid spending on low-income children has not kept pace with states that decided against expanding their programs to able-bodied adults. Charles Blahous, the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Chair and senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joins Health Care News to discuss this development. In addition to writing several books and publishing many studies on public policy issues, Blahous served as the deputy director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush.

On December 13, Blahous and Liam Sigaud published “The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion is Shifting Resources away from Low-Income Children.”

Host AnneMarie Schieber and Blahous discuss why spending growth for low-income children did not keep pace with growth in non-expansion states. Why is it that children have been particularly impacted? What might have been a smarter approach? Are waivers the answer? Is expanding insurance coverage to a wider group incompatible with caring for the most vulnerable? This and more are discussed on today’s episode.