Ohio Medicaid Basics 2019
Medicaid pays for healthcare services for about three million Ohioans with low incomes,
including more than 1.2 million children. Medicaid spending accounts for more than one-third of Ohio’s budget and almost 17% of health expenditures nationally.1
This publication provides an overview of Ohio’s Medicaid program, including eligibility, covered services, delivery systems, financing and spending.
Medicaid is financed jointly by the federal government and states. Total expenditures for Ohio’s Medicaid program were over $26.3 billion in SFY 2018. This represented 38.5% of Ohio’s total spending that year.2 The federal share of Ohio’s Medicaid program was 68.3%, or slightly less than $18 billion. Ohio’s General Revenue Fund (GRF; i.e. Ohio income tax revenue) contributed slightly more than $5 billion, or about 19% (see figure 10 in the publication). 3
Between SFYs 2008 and 2018, total spending on Ohio’s Medicaid program grew by an average of 6.8% per year, from about $13.7 billion in SFY 2008 to over $26.3 billion in SFY 2018 (see below).
Differences between Medicaid and Medicare
Ohio Medicaid spending, in billions, SFY 2008 – SFY 2018
Webinar recording: Ohio Medicaid Basics 2019
1. “NHE Fact sheet.” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Accessed on March 9, 2019. Additional analysis by HPIO staff. https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html
2. Ohio Medicaid spending from LSC Historical Expenditures and Revenues Table 4 and total Ohio spending from OBM Interactive budget. Accessed March 1, 2019.
3. Data from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. “Historical Revenues and Expenditures – Table 4 – All-Funds Medicaid Expenditure History.” Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed on March 8, 2019. https://www.lsc.ohio.gov/pages/reference/current/historicalrevandexpenditure.aspx
4. For more information on Medicare, see Davis, Patricia, et al. Medicare Primer. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2017. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40425.pdf
