

New York’s per capita Medicaid spending jumped 14 percent in 2023, moving it further ahead of the rest of the country, recently released nationwide data show.
In the federal fiscal year that ended last September, New York spent $94.6 billion $95.6 billion on Medicaid health coverage for the low-income and disabled, according to an annual fiscal report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
That amounted to more than $4,800 for each resident, which was 21 percent more than the No. 2 state, New Mexico, and 82 percent above the national average (see chart). That latter gap widened from 61 percent in 2019.
The state-funded portion of New York’s Medicaid spending was $1,800 per capita, which was more than double the national average of $835.
New York’s No. 1 spending rate is driven by a combination of high enrollment, broad benefits and high costs of care relative to other states.
Medicaid covers 7.5 million New Yorkers, or 38 percent of the population, when the state’s poverty rate is about 14 percent. Its benefit package includes unusually expansive coverage for long-term care, which has led outlays for in-home services to explode in recent years.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, state-funded Medicaid spending has been rising at some of the fastest rates in the program’s 59-year history, jumping 53 percent between 2019 and 2024.
This year’s budget deal between Governor Hochul and the Legislature slowed the growth but also authorized a new tax on health plans designed to generate billions in additional federal Medicaid funding, which would pave the way for more spending increases in the future.
About the Author
Bill Hammond
As the Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy, Bill Hammond tracks fast-moving developments in New York’s massive health care industry, with a focus on how decisions made in Albany and Washington affect the well-being of patients, providers, taxpayers and the state’s economy.
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Medicaid’s Missing Million
- February 10, 2025
New York’s Medicaid Spiral Is Worse Than Hochul Admitted
- January 29, 2025
Hochul Hides the Specifics of a Looming Tax on Health Insurance
- October 7, 2024
Hochul’s CDPAP Overhaul Hands a Costly Win to 1199
- October 2, 2024
New Yorkers’ Health Costs Spiral as Officials Take Credit for ‘Savings’
- September 17, 2024
What Paul Francis Got Wrong About the Empire Center’s Nursing Home Research
- September 11, 2024