Coletti

RALEIGH — A major cause of North Carolina’s continuing budget woes is rapid growth in Medicaid spending, where the state has some of the highest expenditures in the South, according…

States have three direct policy levers to control Medicaid growth: eligibility, services, and payments. North Carolina’s mix of policies has led to some of the highest costs in the South, but the Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform would make it even costlier. Tennessee and Mississippi, the two Southern states with higher per capita costs in 2000, have since made significant changes. Georgia and Virginia present different ways to reduce costs, while a 2001 report for the General Assembly presented largely unexploited savings.