Total Medicaid spending in the U.S. 2021, by state

This statistic presents the total Medicaid spending in the United States in the federal fiscal year 2021, listed by state. In that fiscal year, New Jersey's total Medicaid expenditure was approximately 19.1 billion U.S. dollars.

Medicaid spending in the U.S.

Medicaid spending varies widely between states. California expended almost 98 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 while Wyoming spent some 0.6 billion U.S. dollars in the same year. Medicaid is a health program that targets families and individuals earning a low-income in the United States. Each state is able to determine the eligibility of individuals to enter the program. Children are among the largest group enrolled in Medicaid, however, almost 40 percent of Medicaid spending is targeted towards individuals that are disabled. About 23 percent of Medicaid expenditures are used for acute care and some 21 percent used for long-term care.

Medicaid since the ACA

The establishment of the Affordable Care Act increased state and federal spending dedicated to Medicaid. In 1990, the federal government spent 40.9 billion U.S. dollars and the state government spent 31.3 billion U.S. dollars on Medicaid. Since then, federal and state spending increased to 399 billion U.S. dollars and 240 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, in 2019. Expenditures on this health insurance are expected to continue its trend, increasing to over one trillion U.S. dollars by 2027. Medicaid is the largest public health insurance program in the United States and covers roughly 75 million citizens in the country.