Tayloe: Medicaid: Facts and concerns

Dr. David Tayloe Jr.

By Dr. David Tayloe Jr.

NC Newsline

In 1965, after creating Medicare to provide health services for people over the age of 65, the federal government created Medicaid to help low-income children and disabled people of all ages access necessary health and human services. Medicare is funded and administered at the federal level. Medicaid is a joint venture through which a state receives most funding from the federal government but must pay a percentage based on the economic health of the state. In North Carolina, our federal Medicaid matching percentage is 68 percent. The state covers 32 percent of the cost.

States administer Medicaid and set provider and hospital payment; these payment rates cannot exceed 100 percent of the Medicare rates. In 1989, Congress passed t