The number of New Yorkers on Medicaid and other state public health insurance programs has skyrocketed by 57 percent over the past decade — to 7 million, according to a report released Wednesday.
More than a third of New Yorkers — 36 percent of the state’s 19.8 million people — received government-funded health coverage targeted to the needy, the analysis by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said.
That figure excludes Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance for the elderly.
Enrollment for Me🧸dicaid jumped 46 ꦬpercent, from 4.3 million to 6.2 million from 2008-09 to 2017-18.
New York also took advantage ♓of additional federal dollars available under former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act to create a new state hea🎃lth insurance program to cover lower-income New Yorkers who did not qualify for Medicaid.
There are now 729,000 New Yorkers enrolled in the “Essential Plan.”
There are also 350,000 youngsters under 19 enrolled in the publicly funded Child Health Plus program. — slightly lower than the 369,000 kids enrolled in 2009.
The good news, DiNapoli said, is that the number of New Yorkers without health insurance dropped from 10.9 percent in 2008 to 4.9 percent last year — a rate that is 50 percent lower than the national average.
Spending on Medicaid, adjusted for medical inflation, increased 19 percent. Total Spending on the state’s Medicaid program was $69.4 billion last year, by far the largest🎶 in the nation.
But federal funding picked up 54 perce❀nt of the bill and covered m🌸ost of the spending increase.
Spending per enrollee actually plummeted 18 percent because most of🔜 the new en♛rollees were healthier and did not have costly disabilities.
DiNapoli said the increased enrollment was largely fuel💮ed by a boost in fed🥂eral support under ObamaCare.