New York's Budgeted Medicaid Expenses To Rise to $15.1 Billion, While Cuomo And Medicaid Redesign Team Claim Cuts.

  Did the illusion of budget cutting by the NY State Medicaid Redesign Team work?   (The budget numbers reported below are just what NY pays out of its own pocket, other budget numbers report what New York State pays out in total and include New York's share and the federal funds passed through New York State for Medicaid expenses. See below*)


     "Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today accepted a report from the Medicaid Redesign Team which meets the Governor’s Medicaid spending target contained in his 2011-2012 budget by introducing a global cap on State Medicaid expenditures of $15.109 billion."


        $13.851 billion dollars was New York State Medicaid expenditures for the present year's budget (ends June 2011) as reported in New York Division of Budget Mid-year(December) report in Table 1,
but this was reduced by Federal Stimulus money received for this year's budget, which was
Approximately $5.9 billion of New York’s ARRA funding is projected to be used for General Fund budget balance in SFY 2010-11, with an additional $4.6 billion being passed through to local governments.


     Were you deceived by the illusion of Medicaid budget cuts?

1. This year, the NY State Medicaid expenditure was $13.8 billion and the cap on next year's expenditure will be $15.1 Billion?

2. Where is the missing federal stimulus $5.9 billion going to be conjured up from?

3. Is illusionary money able to balance a budget? 

4. What are the Counties going to do about their missing Federal $4.6 billion dollars and their increased $15.1 billion share that Cuomo's budget sends them?

*Notes on Medicaid Funding method in New York:
1. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health care to the poor. The feds split the Medicaid bill with the states, paying 50 percent of the program’s cost in richer states like New York and a larger fraction in poorer ones. Spending is open-ended: the more money states spend on Medicaid, the more money Washington sends them as its match. Crucially, though federal regulators set minimum requirements for who’s eligible and what services they receive, states can offer a range of additional services (prescription drugs, say), for which the feds nevertheless have to chip in. These federal dollars are a huge incentive for states to expand their health-care initiatives
2. For Medicaid, the Federal government pays 50%, New York State pays 25% and the counties, with no input pay, 25%
3. Some New York Medicaid facts:
    With 6.4 percent of the nation's population and 8.7 percent of all Medicaid enrollment, New York accounted for 14 percent of all Medicaid spending.
    New York's Medicaid program, including the local government share, was larger than the total budgets of 42 states.
    New York spent 25 percent more than California, whose Medicaid program covered twice as many people.
    New York's federal, state and local Medicaid spending exceeded the Medicaid budgets of Florida, Texas and North Carolina combined.