Medicaid Institute™

In 2005, the Fund established the Medicaid Institute™, which provides information and analyses explaining New York's Medicaid program, to help all stakeholders explore options for redesigning, restructuring, and rebuilding the Medicaid program.

Medicaid provides a broad range of health care services to diverse groups of New Yorkers. The program's responsibilities include four main roles:
•    Providing health insurance to low-income families;
•    Covering disabled individuals with no other access to services;
•    Supplementing Medicare for low-income elderly and disabled persons;
•    Providing subsidies directly to health care providers.

Medicaid spending on health care services in New York totaled $49.4 billion in federal fiscal year 2009. Acute care services accounted for 47 percent of costs, and long-term care accounted for 47 percent; direct payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals, those serving high concentrations of Medicaid patients and the uninsured, made up the balance. (An additional $1.4 billion was spent on administrative costs.) 

Although elderly and disabled beneficiaries make up less than one-fourth of Medicaid enrollment, services provided to them account for about two-thirds of spending, most of which fills coverage gaps for beneficiaries also enrolled in Medicare. Children and adults who are neither elderly nor disabled make up more than three-quarters of enrollment, yet account for about one-quarter of Medicaid spending.

Contact: Michael Birnbaum

Medicaid Institute™ Website

For more information about the Medicaid Institute™ at United Hospital Fund, please visit its website.