Medicaid Long-Term Care Spending Tops $106 Billion | HULIQ

Medicaid Long-Term Care Spending Tops $106 Billion | HULIQ: "Long-term care represents 32.1 percent of total Medicaid spending according to a new report. As costs rise, the program is raising serious budget problems for numerous states.

Total Medicaid expenditures for long-term care increased 3.8 percent in 2008 reaching a total of $106.4 billion. Medicaid is the nation's poverty program with expenses borne by federal and state taxpayers.

Institutional long-term care spending by the Medicaid program increased 2.9 percent in fiscal year 20908 to $61.0 billion according to the report issued by Thomson Reuters. Medicaid nursing home expenditures increased 4.1 percent to $49 billion.

'State governments don't have the ability to print money and taxpayers are having to pay an ever-increasing cost for long-term care services,' explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. 'If the trend continues, people can expect to see reduced services across the board as states are unable to sufficiently raise taxes to cover the increased cost.'"