How would Medicaid block grants work?

Stateline: Medicaid Explained: How Would Block Grants Work?
One of the most controversial ideas in Washington right now is to turn Medicaid into a block grant program. ... Instead of an entitlement with open-ended funding, Medicaid would be converted into a grant program with set funding levels. The change would happen in 2013. Grants to states would start out at 2012 funding levels and would increase by about 4 percent annually to account for inflation and population growth. ... Hasn't this idea come up before? Yes. President Ronald Reagan pushed a similar block grant proposal for Medicaid in 1981. It passed in the U.S. Senate but never became law (Vestal, 4/18).

Related, earlier KHN story: How Medicaid Block Grants Would Work (Carey and Werber Serafini, 3/6).