Medicaid Covers 1 out of 5 Americans. How Did It Get So Big? | WSJ

• [Narrator] Medicaid is huge. It covers nearly a quarter of Americans and costs more than $800 billion huge. But this chart is total spending.Here's what the federal government share has been, and it's projected to grow even more in the next decade. But the Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill" is estimated to cut the spending to here, largely by lowering the number of people covered. Medicaid really started small, so how did it get so big and who's going to be affected.A quick history lesson. In 1942, Congres ...