Medicaid: The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage
February 2, 2009 - RL32950
Medicaid is a health insurance program jointly funded by the federal government and the states. Generally, eligibility for Medicaid is limited to low-income children, pregnant women, parents of dependent children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The federal government's share of a state's expenditures for most Medicaid services is called the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP). Determined annually, the FMAP is designed so that the federal government pays a larger portion of Medicaid costs in states with lower per capita income relative to the national average (and vice versa for states with higher per capita incomes). For FY2008, FMAPs range from 50.00% to 76.29%. For FY2009, FMAPs range from 50.00% to 75.84%. In recent years, the fiscal situation of the states has focused attention on Medicaid expenditures, as well as on changes in the federal share, or FMAP. In the 108th Congress, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA, P.L. 108-27) provided temporary fiscal relief for states and local governments through a combination of FMAP increases and direct grants. In the 109th Congress, provisions to exclude certain Hurricane Katrina evacuees and their incomes from FMAP calculations and prevent Alaska's FY2006-FY2007 FMAPs from decreasing were included in ...