Issue Brief 10-06
January 26, 2010
Summary 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5) contains provisions that increase Medicaid grants to states for 27 months by increasing their federal medical assistance percentages (FMAPs), the share of state programs paid by the federal government. The bonus increases can change each quarter based on state unemployment rates. The preliminary quarterly unemployment bonuses are calculated when preliminary unemployment data for the month prior to the start of the quarter are released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Those quarterly FMAPs are recalculated once final unemployment data for the month are available.  

On January 22, 2010, BLS published preliminary state unemployment data for December 2009. Publication of these data permit calculation of the preliminary second quarter ARRA FMAPs for federal fiscal year (FY) 2010. Three states—Alaska, Arkansas, and Oklahoma—are projected to move to a higher bonus tier.