Medicaid: Recent Spending Experience and the Administration's Proposed Program Reform

GAO discussed recent Medicaid spending trends and their potential implications for future outlays, focusing on: (1) key factors that explain the Medicaid 3.3-percent growth rate in fiscal year 1996; and (2) the administration's proposal to contain Medicaid cost growth through decreases in disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments and per capita caps, and to increase state flexibility.