US Medicaid Spending, Inflation-Adjusted · USD bn (latest fiscal year dollars)

## What this measures

us.medicaid.spending_total re-expressed in dollars of the newest fiscal year (now FY 2024): each year's total multiplied by the October–September average of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, BLS, FRED CPIAUCSL) for FY 2024 and divided by the same average for its own fiscal year. A Palanor calculation. FY 1974 to FY 2024.

## Why it matters

Fifty years of nominal dollars hide how much of Medicaid's growth is inflation. In constant dollars the remaining growth is enrollment, benefits and health-care prices rising faster than prices in general.

## How to read it

In FY 2024 dollars Medicaid spent $70.1 billion in FY 1974 and $949 billion in FY 2024, about 14 times as much after general inflation. When a new MACStats edition adds a fiscal year the whole series is restated in that year's dollars, so every value moves a little; the shape does not.

## What it does not say

CPI-U measures consumer prices in general, not medical prices: deflating by a medical price index would show less real growth. Not per person (see us.medicaid.spending_per_enrollee). All the limits of us.medicaid.spending_total apply.

## Source

Palanor calculation (src/lib/macpac/medicaid.ts) from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U via FRED CPIAUCSL (public domain) and Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book, Exhibit 10 (https://www.macpac.gov/macstats/; earlier editions at https://www.macpac.gov/publication/macstats-archive/), from MACPAC's analysis of states' CMS-64 Financial Management Report expenditure data. Licence (https://www.macpac.gov/disclaimer/): "Because MACPAC is an agency of the federal government, the information on this site is in the public domain and may be freely copied and distributed. We would appreciate attribution when you cite our information." Read monthly by /api/cron/macpac-sync (src/lib/macpac/medicaid.ts).