Opinion: Out of control Medicare spending? Maybe not.

Health policy discussions often take for granted the fact that Medicaid costs are spiralling out of control, becoming a huge burden on state budgets. Via Incidental Economist, a new Bloomberg Government study questions that assumption, suggesting that Medicaid's costs may be growing significantly slower than we think. Statistics show per capita spending on Medicaid in the five largest states since 2002. It's bobbed up and down over the past decade, but in 2011, looks surprisingly similar to where it was in 2002.