PBS Video - Need to Know - April 8, 2011
Nearly half a century ago, President Lyndon Johnson created the Medicare and Medicaid programs as part of his Great Society reforms. Now Medicare and Medicaid together account for almost a quarter of the entire federal budget – a total of almost $800 billion in the last year alone. In the recent recession, the federal government provided an additional $87 billion to fund Medicaid.
How would Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan change this? Instead of pumping in money as needed, the federal government would hand out a one-time block grant to each state, each year.