20 Oct States’ Medicaid Funding Falls $1B Short

HealthLeadersMedia.com | October 20 – Twenty-four states gambled—and came up short—on receiving additional federal funds to relieve state Medicaid budgets stressed by the recession. The Federal Medicaid Assistance percentages fell $1.74 billion short of what those 24 states had planned, leaving huge holes in their budgets, according to research by The Council of State Governments.

Those 24 states assumed the federal government would extend the 2009 Recovery Act’s increased Medicaid dollars to their 2011 fiscal year budgets. Although Congress voted to provide $14.15 billion in Medicaid funds to the states, it wasn’t enough for some state budgets.

The states that did not budget the additional funds—which includes California with its budget in limbo—now have an additional estimated $7.3 billion in federal funds. They can move state general fund revenue they had earmarked for Medicaid for other spending, or use these state funds to pull down even more Medicaid money, Miller said.

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