Does cutting money to Medicaid save money or end up costing more? (COSTING MORE-follow the dollars)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/business/economy/the-costs-of-stinginess-in-medicaid.html?ref=business&_r=0

Using national data, the researchers estimated that for children born in 1981, Vermont’s more generous eligibility standards would have cost the federal and state governments $4,796 more a child than in Arkansas, measured in 2011 dollars.

They also found, however, that easier access to Medicaid translated into more payroll and income taxes when the children grew up. By the time Vermont’s children are 60, Professor Kowalski and her colleagues estimated, they will have repaid 56 cents of each additional Medicaid dollar spent on them when young.

There’s more. Healthier children are more likely to become more productive adults who need less government assistance. Children with behavioral problems who receive counseling are less likely to end up in prison — a big expense line on state budgets.

In his recent book “We Are Better Than This,” Edward D. Kleinbard, former chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, now at the University of Southern California, put it cleanly: “Healthy and adequately nourished citizens are more productive, and will contribute more to the prosperity of society, than will sick and emaciated ones.”

Not least, they will probably lead healthier, more satisfying lives. “One reason for the increased tax payments is that the children survived to pay them,” Professor Kowalski told me.