MACStats offers wide range of key Medicaid and CHIP statistics
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) today released the December 2015 edition of the MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book, containing the most up-to-date information on key aspects of the Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) available in a single source—including national trend and state-specific data on enrollment and spending, current eligibility levels across states, and beneficiaries’ health, service use, and access to care.
“The federal-state nature of Medicaid and CHIP creates a great diversity across the states. Through MACStats we are able to go beneath the national picture to understand the scope and key characteristics of Medicaid and CHIP in the 50 states and the District of Columbia to help inform policy development at both the federal and state level,” said MACPAC chair Diane Rowland, ScD.
The current edition of MACStats—available online as well as in the data book—brings together essential data that policymakers need to make decisions about how Medicaid and CHIP operate at the federal level and in distinct state programs throughout the country. Among other statistics, the book contains:
- national trends in Medicaid enrollment and spending, with detail on the program’s share of federal and state budgets;
- Medicaid and CHIP enrollment growth at the state level;
- state-level Medicaid and CHIP spending, including data on Medicaid spending per enrollee, supplemental payments that comprise a large share of spending for certain health care providers, prescription drug payments and rebates, and other key items;
- state-level Medicaid and CHIP eligibility thresholds for non-disabled children, pregnant women, parents, and other adults, as well as people with disabilities and those age 65 or older; and
- measures of beneficiary health, use of services, and access to care.
“From the beginning, MACPAC sought to make information on Medicaid and CHIP data more accessible and transparent,” said MACPAC executive director Anne Schwartz, PhD. “Whether you are a social scientist, a reporter, on a congressional staff, or a state official hoping to see how your CHIP and Medicaid programs match up with other states, it’s not always easy to find information on these programs that together cover health care for more than one-quarter of the U.S. population for at least part of the year,” said Schwartz.
MACPAC is required to review national and state-specific Medicaid and CHIP data as part of its statutory mandate under Title XIX of the Social Security Act. Prior to this year, the commission published the data—known as MACStats—in two parts in its semi-annual reports to Congress. December 2015 marks the first time MACPAC has published these data in a single source. Data will be published online throughout the year as soon as they become available.
Visit this link for PDF and online versions of the December 2015 MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book.
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ABOUT MACPAC
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission is a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide array of issues affecting Medicaid and CHIP. For more information, please visit: www.macpac.gov.
