s spent on 3.3 million elderly Medicaid recipients in 1972 compared with $10 billion spent on 3.5 million elderly recipients in 1983. Although the cost per recipient for non-elderly patients has also risen, the increase has not been as dramatic.
Medicaid is the fastest growing government spending program in the United States. Medicaid and Medicare combined are expected to grow at an 8 percent annual rate through 1999 (Collins, 1994, p. 73). These programs account for 29 percent of mandatory government spending, and this percent is expected to increase to 38 percent by the year 2000 (p. 74). Economists
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