U.S. Federal and State Medicaid Spending: Health Policy Patterns by Political Party Leadership and Census Demographics

Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem () and Pamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem
Additional contact information
Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem: Center for Health Justice, Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Pamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem: Department of Business and Entrepreneurship, Barber-Scotia College, Concord, NC 28025, USA

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 7, 1-10

Abstract: Medicaid is a vital public health program, serving over 70 million Americans from many backgrounds. Understanding how Medicaid spending varies by political leadership and demographic factors can inform policy discussions and advocacy efforts. We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of state Medicaid spending using publicly available data. Our findings show that individuals identifying as White comprise the largest single racial group of Medicaid beneficiaries both nationally and in most states. While the 2020 Census Diversity Index correlated strongly with total Medicaid spending, no significant association was found with per enrollee spending or the federal share of Medicaid funding. States led by Democrats had higher total Medicaid spending when compared to Republican-led states. However, Republican-led states received a larger proportion of federal Medicaid funding. Among political leadership levels, Senate representation showed the strongest relationship with Medicaid spending trends compared to gubernatorial leadership and presidential voting history. In conclusion, we demonstrate that Medicaid spending impacts all racial groups and both major political parties. However, funding structures and political representation reflect distinct spending patterns. Given the evolving demographic and political landscape, ongoing policy discussions should ensure that Medicaid remains a public health program that remains effective at safeguarding human health.

Keywords: congress; health policy; insurance; political party; reform; Medicaid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/7/1074/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/7/1074/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:7:p:1074-:d:1694857

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().