Health Care
Kaitlyn Finley | October 8, 2020
The rising costs of Oklahoma’s Medicaid program
Kaitlyn Finley
Over the past two decades, costs for Oklahoma’s Medicaid program have increased dramatically. In 1999, Oklahoma’s total Medicaid’s expenditures were $2.24 billion. Last year that number reached $5.76 billion, a 157 percent increase. (These figures are adjusted for inflation and expenditures include federal matching dollars.)
Moreover, per person costs have increased by 29 percent.
By the end of June 2021, total program expenditures for fiscal year 2020 likely will have increased considerably due to projected higher enrollment resulting from the Covid-related economic fallout.
And beginning next summer, able-bodied adults will be eligible to receive Medicaid services due to the passage of State Question 802. State officials have projected this expansion of Medicaid will increase expenditures by more than a $1 billion, with the state paying for up to $246 million annually.
Kaitlyn Finley
Policy Research Fellow
Kaitlyn Finley currently serves as a policy research fellow for OCPA with a focus on healthcare and welfare policy. Kaitlyn graduated from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Previously, she served as a summer intern at OCPA and spent time in Washington D.C. interning for the Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.