Issue Brief 19-26
September 25, 2019
Summary 

Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released revised state personal income data for 2018. The federal government uses state per capita income to calculate each state’s federal reimbursement rate—the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)—for Medicaid and other grant programs. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) uses an enhanced FMAP, which is higher than the Medicaid matching rate.

The BEA release facilitates calculation of the final fiscal year (FY) 2021 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years (CYs) 2016-2018.

This Issue Brief summarizes the BEA data and provides FFIS’s estimates of the final FY 2021 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs. FFIS estimates that FMAPs will increase in 24 states and decline in 13, ranging from a 2.35 percentage-point increase in North Dakota to a -0.69 percentage-point change in Missouri. All states will see significant reductions in their enhanced FMAPs because FY 2021 marks the full phase-out of the 23 percentage-point increase under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).