Connecticut’s per-person Medicaid spending decreases by more than any other state

Connecticut”™s per-person Medicaid spending decreased more than any other state over a five-year period, which included the first year of expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Per-person Medicaid spending in the Nutmeg State fell by an average of 5.7 percent per year from 2010 to 2014, compared with an increase of 2.5 percent for private health insurance and an increase of 1.6 percent for Medicare, according to the group.

Connecticut and other states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act collectively spent 12 percent more on Medicaid as a whole from 2013 to 2014, compared with 6 percent in so-called nonexpansion states. Still, expansion states recorded a 5.1 percent decrease in per-person Medicaid spending, while nonexpansion states witnessed a 5.1 percent increase.

The organization said that the enrollment of healthier Medicaid recipients under the expansion helped bring down costs.