State Medicaid Spending Creeps Past K12 Spending

Last week, the just-retired director of the Congressional Budget Office told NPR's Terry Gross that Medicaid and Medicare costs were likely to triple over the next 20 years from roughly 4 percent of the federal dollar to 12 or 15 percent -- each. Now, Howie Shaffer at the PEN NewsBlast digs out a USAT story telling us that states now spend more on health care for the poor than they do on elementary and secondary education. "The states spent 21.9% of their revenue on Medicaid in fiscal year 2004. Elementary and second education consumed about 21.5% of states' budgets. Higher education came in at a distant third, 10.5%."