New York spends heavily on Medicaid long-term care
New York state tends to spend more money, both in actual dollars and as a percentage of its Gross State Product (GSP), on Medicaid and long-term care than 18 other states, according to a report comparing costs in 19 states.New York spent $44.5 billion on Medicaid in 2003, totaling 5.3% of its GSP, according to the Rockefeller Institute's report, which was released Friday. (GSP is the amount of good and services produced in a state for a particular year.) Maine also spent 5.3% of its GSP on Medicaid that year, but that only totaled $2.1 billion. When it comes to long-term care's portion of the Medicaid pie, New York also pays more. In 2006, New York spent $19 billion from Medicaid on long-term care, just over 40% of its total Medicaid outlay. California came in a distant second, spending $12 billion on long-term care in 2006.
Reasons for the high dollar amount spent on Medicaid include a higher than average percentage of elderly aged 85 and older, a greater than average poor elderly population and a high number of medically needy elderly enrollees in Medicaid.
The Rockefeller Institute's report can be found online at www.rockinst.org.
