Medicaid Formula Differences in Funding Ability Among States Often Are Widened

By General Accounting Office

Book Id: WPLBN0000176095
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 0.7 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Medicaid Formula Differences in Funding Ability Among States Often Are Widened
Author:	General Accounting Office
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Accountability in government, United States. General Accounting Office
Collections:	Government Library Collection, Government Accountability Integrity Reliability Office Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	United States General Accounting Office (Gao)


Citation APA MLA Chicago Office, G. A. (n.d.). Medicaid Formula Differences in Funding Ability Among States Often Are Widened. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Government Accountability Integrity Reliability Office Collection

Excerpt
Excerpt: The Medicaid formula narrows the average difference in states? funding ability by 20 percent but often widens the gap between individual states and the national average. Although the receipt of federal matching aid moves 30 states closer to the national average, making the average difference in funding ability smaller, it also moves 21 states farther away from the average, widening the average difference. These 21 states include 3 that are among the states with the largest populations in poverty-California, Florida, and New York. After federal matching aid is added, states? funding ability ranges from 26 percent below the national average for two states to 179 percent above for another. Because of the formula?s current structure, in many instances, two states devoting similar proportions of their own resources to Medicaid can spend very different amounts per person in poverty. For example, in fiscal year 2000, California and Wisconsin each devoted about $8 for every $1,000 of their own state resources toward Medicaid. However, under the current formula, Wisconsin receives a relatively high federal matching rate despite its relatively high ability to fund program services, whereas California receives a low federal matching rate despite its relatively low ability to fund program services. With the addition of federal matching aid, Wisconsin is enabled to spend more than twice what California is able to spend per person in poverty ($7,532 versus $3,731).