Medicaid spending per capita is lower in the Beehive State than anywhere else in the country, according to the findings of a Utah Foundation report published Wednesday.
As of 2016, $703 in combined state and federal Medicaid dollars were spent per capita in Utah, said the foundation, a nonpartisan policy research nonprofit. Per capita data was calculated by dividing costs by the number of total residents in the state.
Sam Brucker, a Utah Foundation research analyst who authored the report, said the low number is “good news” for the average Utah taxpayer.
“It’s a lower tax burden overall for Utahns,” Brucker said.
State costs for Utah’s Medicaid program also account for 18.7 percent of the state budget, eighth lowest in the United States, the report found. Nationwide, Utah also had the lowest percentage of its population enrolled in Medicaid as of 2016.
