*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1992.12.31 :  Medicaid Program Costs in 1990

Contact:  Anne Verano (202) 690-6145
December 31, 1992

       Federal and state governments, through the Medicaid
program, spent 31 percent more on health care for poor Americans
in fiscal year 1991 than in fiscal year 1990, the Health Care
Financing Administration announced today.
       Medicaid, a federal-state program, pays for health care
for certain groups of low-income Americans, mainly women,
children, and the poor elderly and disabled.      
       Total Medicaid outlays were $94.5 billion in FY 1991,
compared with $72.1 billion in FY 1990.  
       The federal share was $52.5 billion in FY 1991, up from
$41.1 billion in FY 1990. 
       "In FY 1991, 12 percent more poor Americans received
health care services through Medicaid than in the previous fiscal
year," said William Toby Jr., acting HCFA administrator.  "That
amounted to an additional 3 million people, raising the total
coverage under Medicaid to 28.3 million people in FY 
1991."
       Medicaid rolls increased because of the economic recession
and expanded eligibility mandated by legislation.
       In addition, states were able to raise total Medicaid
spending by increasing state revenues through new or expanded
taxes on Medicaid providers.  That, in turn, caused federal
matching funds to the states to increase.  This practice has now
been restricted by recently enacted legislation.
       Under Medicaid law, states get matching payments ranging
from 50 percent to 83 percent, depending on state per-capita
income.  That means the federal government pays more of a poorer
state's Medicaid expenses. 
       (Contact the Health Care Financing Administration's press
office for state-by-state data on Medicaid payments and
recipients in FY 1990 and 
1991.)

                               # # #    
     
EDITOR'S NOTE: HCFA, which also oversees the Medicare program,
helps pay the medical bills of 62 million Americans.  HCFA's
estimated fiscal year 1993 expenditures are $230 billion, the
12th largest governmental budget of any kind in the world.