UnitedHealth Group Inc., the Minnetonka-based health insurer, said the Medicaid program could save $366 billion over a decade by enrolling more of the poor in private managed-care plans.
Putting more long-term care patients in managed care may save the U.S. and state governments $140 billion over a decade and modernizing computer and administrative systems may save $133 billion, the company said in a report Thursday. The insurer is the largest private provider of Medicaid benefits, which cover the poor, followed by Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and Amerigroup Corp. of Virginia Beach, Va.
Expanding Medicaid would cover about half of the 32 million uninsured Americans affected by the health-care overhaul signed by President Obama, the Congressional Budget Office projected last month. Savings in the joint federal-state program would help states facing budget shortages amid the recession and doctors who say the program pays them too little, UnitedHealth's report said.
"There is actually an opportunity to generate savings out of the Medicaid program and put that back into primary care," said Simon Stevens, a UnitedHealth executive vice president, in a conference call with reporters. "We think there is a circle that can be squared here."
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