Medicaid Enrollment & Spending Growth: FY 2020 & 2021

(By Robin Rudowitz, Elizabeth Hinton, Madeline Guth, and Lina Stolyar for Kaiser Family Foundation)

The coronavirus pandemic has generated both a public health crisis and an economic crisis, with major implications for Medicaid, a countercyclical program. During economic downturns, more people enroll in Medicaid, increasing program spending at the same time state tax revenues may be falling. To help both support Medicaid and provide broad fiscal relief as revenues have declined precipitously, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) authorized a 6.2 percentage point increase in the federal match rate (“FMAP”) (retroactive to January 1, 2020) available if states meet certain “maintenance of eligibility” (MOE) requirements. The health and economic consequences of the pandemic as well as the temporary FMAP increase were major drivers of Medicaid enrollment and spending trends as states finished state fiscal year (FY) 2020 and started FY 2021 (which for most states began on July 1).  Continue reading brief here…

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