New Mexico is 8th largest recipient of Medicaid match

New Mexico ranks eighth among the states for the amount of money the federal government provides in Medicaid matching payments.

New Mexico ranks eighth among the states for the amount of money the federal government provides in Medicaid matching payments.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, New Mexico received $2.26 from the feds in FY12 for every dollar in state money it spent on the program, for a matching rate of 69.4 percent. In other words, the federal government spent 69.4 cents in New Mexico for every dollar the state put into its Medicaid program.

Mississippi ranked first, receiving $2.87 in federal money for every dollar the state spent, for a match rate of 74.2 percent, the Tax Foundation said.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health insurance to more than 560,000 low-income New Mexicans. The federal matches are based on poverty and unemployment rates.

The cost of New Mexico?s Medicaid program in FY12 is $3.74 billion, $2.6 billion of which is paid for by the feds. The remaining $1.1 billion comes from the state?s general fund.

Fourteen states, including Colorado, Wyoming and California, were tied for the lowest federal match rate of $1, or 50 percent.

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