Issue Brief 18-34
September 26, 2018
Summary 

Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released revised state personal income data for 2017 and prior years. 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 certain 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) 2020 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years (CY) 2015-2017.

This Issue Brief summarizes the BEA data and provides FFIS’s estimates of the final FY 2020 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs. FFIS estimates that FMAPs will increase in 19 states and decline in 17, ranging from a +3.64 percentage-point increase in Oklahoma to a -1.52 percentage-point decline in Utah. Comprehensive revisions to the BEA personal income data affected results in some states.