Policymaker Issue Briefs
No. 3
November, 2002

Connecticut Medicaid Spending In Context

How does Connecticut's spending on Medicaid compare to the rest of the budget and the rest of the country?

Growth in Medicaid spending has roughly mirrored growth in the total state budget.

Over the last ten years CT's Medicaid spending grew by 73% while the General Fund grew by 66%. In FY 1993 Medicaid was 20.1% of the budget; by FY 2002 the percentage had grown only to 20.9%

Other parts of Connecticut's budget have grown much faster than Medicaid.

Connecticut's Medicaid budget has grown more slowly than federal Medicaid spending.

Over the last ten years, federal spending on Medicaid grew by 91% compared to Connecticut's Medicaid budget growth of 73%. However during that time, the total federal budget grew by 46% while Connecticut's budget grew by 66.1%.

Over the last ten years, Connecticut's spending on Medicaid has grown much more slowly than federal Medicaid spending while Connecticut's total budget has grown considerably faster than the total federal budget.

Bottom Line: Connecticut has controlled Medicaid spending.

Sources: Office of the State Comptroller, actual spending levels

CMS, http://www.cms.gov 

Budget of the United States, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/pdf/hist.pdf  Note: 2002 federal spending levels are estimates