The Benefits to Taxpayers from Increases in Students - RAND ...

Spending on Social Support Programs 51
In our nationally representative data, 12 percent of individuals utilized Medicaid,
and 20 percent of those who utilized the program (2 percent of the total) were hospitalized
at the time of the survey.
The results show that, by far, the largest public saving in Medicaid occurs between
high school dropouts and high school graduates, across all gender and race/ethnicity
groups. The gains for women are generally 50–100 percent higher than those for men,
and the highest differential is for Hispanics. Such divergence is observed in inpatient
and outpatient services alike; however, the divergence for inpatient services is more
critical, since they are almost six times more expensive than outpatient services.
One striking finding about total Medicaid spending is that the burden of men on
the system strongly depends on age in addition to educational attainment, while the
burden of women is relatively stable, especially for the high school dropout group. One
potential explanation relates to pregnancy, as women in their twenties and thirties use
Medicare as much as they do in their senior years. Another related finding is that the
Medicaid utilization pattern of college-graduate women closely resembles that of men.
Women with more education are much more likely to have a job that comes with insurance
benefits, and they do not have to rely on Medicaid to finance their health needs.
To illustrate the results, Figure 4.5 shows the Medicaid benefits for a U.S.-born
Hispanic woman as a function of age and education level.
Figure 4.5
Expected Annual Medicaid Benefits for a U.S.-Born Hispanic Woman
Expected annual benefits (2002 $)
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
Less than high school graduate
High school graduate
Some college
Bachelor’s degree or more
RAND MG686-4.5
0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75
Age