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HEHS-96-168R 1 (1996-06-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacpvl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


j      0/       United States
            General Accounting Office
                Washington, D.C. 20548

                Health, Education, and
                Human Services Division



                B-272252

                June 10, 1996

                The Honorable Michael Bilirakis
                House of Representatives

                Dear Mr. Bilirakis:

                This letter responds to your request for comments on an analysis entitled, Florida's
                Fair Share. That analysis questions the appropriateness of the Medicaid funding
                formula now contained in H.R. 3507, noting that Florida's projected allocations for
                fiscal years 1996 through 2002 are less than those projected for Pennsylvania and
                Ohio, even though Florida has more people and a larger proportion of elderly
                individuals than either state.'

                Our review of the formula in H.R. 3507 indicates that in each year the new formula
                would cause the distribution of federal Medicaid funding to become progressively
                more closely aligned with states' poverty populations and to reflect the proportions
                of the populations who are elderly.

                Under current law, federal funding of state Medicaid programs is not based on the
                size of state populations. Rather, the program is an open-ended matching program
                that provides more generous matching rates for low-income states. Consequently,
                the more a state spends on benefits for eligible recipients and the lower its per
                capita income, the more it receives in federal dollars. For example, Florida spends
                less than Pennsylvania and receives less in matching federal funds (see table 1). In
                contrast, Ohio spends less yet receives more in federal matching because its lower
                per capita income results in a higher federal matching percentage (61 percent
                compared with Florida's 56 percent).








                'The analysis also points out that on a proportionate basis, North Carolina also
                receives more. That is, Florida has twice the population of North Carolina but
                would not receive twice the funding under the proposal.

                            GAO/HEHS-96-168R Analysis of Florida's Fair Share

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