MEDICAID

The Medicaid program is a federal guarantee ensuring that the most vulnerable members of our society have access to needed medical services. Medicaid also supplements the Medicare program for more than six million low-income elderly or disabled Medicare beneficiaries, including more than 95,000 Minnesotans.

This year, Minnesota will spend nearly $5.8 billion on Medicaid, $2.9 billion of which will come from the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). This system of federal matching of state Medicaid expenditures ensures that federal funds will grow as Minnesota spending increases in response to our unmet needs.

Earlier this year, the Republican majority leadership and Bush Administration attempted to cut nearly $45 billion in Medicaid funding in order to pay for new tax cuts for the wealthy. Fortunately, Dayton , with Senate Democrats, successfully blocked these attempts to drastically cut funding for this important program.

Medicaid provides health insurance for more than a quarter of America ’s children and pays for more than one-third of the births in the U.S. each year. Additionally, more than 16 million women depend on the Medicaid program for their health care. Mark believes that women, children, and growing population of older Americans need to have access to these critical programs.

Mark is a cosponsor of a Sense of the Senate Resolution (S. 1969) that stresses Medicaid’s importance and the harmful impact that proposed cuts could have, and that legislation should not be enacted that hurts Medicaid beneficiaries or undermines Medicaid’s guarantee.