NEWS RELEASE

NEW PPI ANALYSIS SHOWS NEW YORK SPENDS MORE THAN
TWICE THE PER CAPITA NATIONAL AVERAGE ON MEDICAID

ALBANY—New York State's highest-in-the-nation Medicaid spending now costs an average $2,165 per resident, well over twice the national average, a new Public Policy Institute analysis shows.

The Institute analyzed Medicaid spending data for New York and the other 49 states as the latest installment in its Just The Facts series of key economic and statistical indicators for New York. The updated tables on Medicaid spending, and all other tables in the Just the Facts series, are available at www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf.htm.

The new analysis, which studied 2004 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, shows that New York's per-capita Medicaid spending was 40 percent higher than that in second-place Maine.

The state’s total Medicaid spending in 2004 was 121 percent above the national average and made up 14.5 percent of total spending on Medicaid in the U.S. that year. That percentage was more than twice the state's share of U.S. population, 6.6 percent.

New York spent $486 per capita on inpatient and outpatient care in hospitals and clinics in 2004. That figure was the highest in the nation and 143 percent above the national average. The state spent 146 percent more than California ($197 per capita), and 256 percent more than Texas ($136 per capita).

The state's Medicaid spending on long-term care was also far out of line with other states. The state spent $337 per capita on nursing facilities in 2004, the first in the nation and 113 percent above the national average. New York also spent the most on home and personal care. At $393 per capita, the state's spending was 207 percent above the national average and made up 21 percent of the total Medicaid dollars spent on home and personal care.

New York spent $198 per capita on prescription drugs, the third highest amount in the nation and 91 percent more than the national average, the data show.

Four tables analyzing the Medicaid data have been added to the Institute's compendium of key economic and social indicators, Just the Facts. The online report includes 32 other tables comparing cost of major business expenses, along with other indicators, in New York and the other 49 states.

All tables in the Just the Facts series are available at www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf.htm.