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Exploring the effects of Medicaid during childhood on the economy and the budget

Author(s):
Ash, Elizabeth, (Of Congressional Budget Office), author
Carrinton, William, author
Heller, Rebecca, (Of Congressional Budget Office), author
Hwang, Grace, (Of Congressional Budget Office), author
United States Congressional Budget Office, issuing body
Title(s):
Exploring the effects of Medicaid during childhood on the economy and the budget / Elizabeth Ash, William Carrington, Rebecca Heller, Grace Hwang.
Series:
Working paper ; 2023-07
Country of Publication:
United States
Publisher:
[Washington, DC] : Congressional Budget Office, November 2023.
Description:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (47 pages)) : illustrations.
Language:
English
Electronic Links:
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2023-10/59231-Medicaid.pdf
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918733583206676
Summary:
This paper examines the short- and long-term fiscal effects of Medicaid spending on children. In the short run, costs for Medicaid are paid upfront when the children (or their mothers) receive health care. In the long run, Medicaid enrollment during childhood has been shown to increase earnings in adulthood. Those higher earnings imply greater tax revenues and lower transfer payments by the federal government in the future. On a present-value basis, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that long-term fiscal effects of Medicaid spending on children could offset half or more of the program’s initial outlays, depending on sets of reasonable parameter values. That estimate is sensitive to the discount factor used to convert future effects to current dollars because long-term returns take over 70 years to fully materialize. The results are also sensitive to the predicted effect of Medicaid enrollment during childhood on earnings in adulthood (a parameter not known with precision) and to whether the changes in federal Medicaid spending come from noninvestment spending or from changes in federal borrowing.
MeSH:
Budgets*
Child*
Federal Government*
Income*
Medicaid/economics*
Taxes*
United States
Publication Type(s):
Technical Report
Copyright Status:
The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain.
NLM ID:
9918733583206676 [Electronic Resource]

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