Nevada’s cost per recipient

While many may think the increasing number of Medicaid recipients in the state Also translates to high spending per enrollee, they would Be wrong.

Meredith Levine, director of economic policy At Nevada’s Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, A nonprofit, Bipartisan policy Analysis And research Center, said that Nevada’s Medicaid spending per enrollee is the lowest in the nation: $3,620 in 2014, the latest year Available for that data, According to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The number one state in Medicaid spending per recipient is North Dakota, At $10,392. desire to leverage federal matching funds to cover more residents.

Program mission creep

The expansions in coverage include:

■ In 1972, federal legislation required states to extend Medicaid to recipients of Supplementary Security Income, a federal program for the disabled.

■ In the 1980s, federal expansions mandated states provide coverage to pregnant women, infants and more young children.

■ In the 1990s, the federal government lowered financial eligibility requirements for pregnant women and children up to 18.

■ In 2001, Nevada expanded its program to cover uninsured women under age 65 diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer or precancerous conditions.

■ In 2008, Nevada Medicaid began covering prostate cancer screening for male recipients.

Nevada also is “a signficant waiver state,” Willden said, meaning it can get permission to use Medicaid dollars in ways that otherwise wouldn’t be allowed. For example, that could mean providing Medicaid coverage for the aged at home rather than only in a nursing home, he said.

The biggest single change in the