{"id":768177,"date":"2026-07-17T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768177\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:39:12","slug":"ny-spending-more-on-medicaid-than-schools-and-pays-more-per-person-than-anywhere-in-us-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768177\/","title":{"rendered":"NY spending more on Medicaid than schools \u2014 and pays more per person than anywhere in US: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s spending is multiplying \u2014 but maybe not adding up.<\/p>\n

The state is now spending more on its massive Medicaid program<\/a> than it does on K-12 schools \u2014 as it already pays more per person than anywhere else in the country, a shocking new analysis showed.<\/p>\n

New York taxpayers paid an eye-watering $39.4 billion for the Medicaid program in the 2025-26 fiscal year \u2014 26.5% of the entire state budget \u2014 and more than the $37 billion it dished out for education, according to a new report from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.<\/p>\n

New York paid $39.4 billion for its Medicaid program this year \u2014 and the spending is set to surge to $53.3 billion in the next three years under Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s budget. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

The soaring spending comes as the federal government probes Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s administration and its Medicaid program<\/a> for possible waste, fraud and abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Medicaid outranks math, the state\u2019s fiscal diagnosis isn\u2019t complicated,\u201d Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told The Post. \u201cEvery tough decision New York makes to clean up Medicaid ensures that education is not crowded out.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Trump administration most recently set its sights on numerous adult care centers <\/a>for seniors located in New York City over possible fraud.<\/p>\n

Medicaid is the national health insurance program for the needy, with costs shared by the federal, state and local governments.<\/p>\n

New York already spends more per resident on Medicaid than any state in the US \u2014 and it pays more on education per student than anywhere else.<\/a><\/p>\n

State spending on Medicaid has more than doubled over the last decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years, all [state] agency Medicaid spending has overtaken spending on School Aid,\u201d DiNapoli\u2019s report said, analyzing the effects of the state\u2019s record-high $269 billion budget for 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mehmet Oz speaking at an event on the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to crack down on Medicare fraud in Milwaukee on July 8, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Combined spending on Medicaid and education accounts for more than half the current state budget.<\/p>\n

DiNapoli\u2019s analysis, citing Hochul\u2019s budget division projections, said state Medicaid will soar in three years to $53.3 billion \u2014 29% of state spending in three years \u2014 while School Aid spending will jump to $43.7 billion, or 23.8% \u2014 a nearly $10 billion gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpending on Medicaid is too high. It\u2019s a free for all. There\u2019s no accountability. They don\u2019t care about the results,\u201d said Bill Hammond, a fellow with the Empire Center for Public Policy who monitors New York\u2019s health care policy.<\/p>\n

Every sector of the influential health care industry receives Medicaid dollars \u2014 hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics, drug manufacturers and home care services, Hammond said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about serving the public interest. It\u2019s about serving special interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the foundation of the Medicaid program provides worthy services to needy patients including people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

But in many cases New York overspends and wastes money, he said.<\/p>\n

Adult care centers for elderly residents have proliferated and costs have skyrocketed, with prosecutors bringing cases against operators offering bribes for enrollment, he added.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Albany\u2019s generosity also comes at a hefty cost, with Hammond saying a majority of Medicaid recipients in New York have incomes above the poverty level.<\/p>\n

DiNapoli said Medicaid spending is projected to increase by $5 billion to help medical facilities handle an influx of patients showing up in emergency rooms because federal cutbacks knocked them off the health insurance rolls.<\/p>\n

Medicaid enrollment is projected to jump to 7.2 million, from 6.6 million, as non-citizens get booted off another state-run health insurance called the Essential Plan.<\/p>\n

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Hochul\u2019s budget office reports that Medicaid spending increases are driven by minimum wage hikes for health care workers, rising medical and drug costs, higher reimbursement rates for hospitals and nursing homes, and continued growth in aging and other \u201chigh-utilization populations,\u201d the analysis noted.<\/p>\n

But DiNapoli also pointed out that the number of New York hospitals identified as \u201cfinancially distressed\u201d and eligible for emergency subsidies has also skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

Some 75 of the state\u2019s 261 hospitals, or 28.7%, were labeled financially distressed \u2014 a 200% from a decade ago. The surge in financially faltering hospitals triggered a 700% increase in federal and state aid to those facilities.<\/p>\n

The just enacted state budget includes a $500 million in \u201cone-time\u201d assistance to distressed hospitals.<\/p>\n

The increased Medicaid spending above the state spending cap coupled with a drop in health-related tax revenues will \u201crequire the State to make choices about the sustainability of the current trajectory of Medicaid spending,\u201d the comptroller\u2019s analysis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s spending is multiplying \u2014 but maybe not adding up. The state is now spending more on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[12,70893,526,55933,97,252,253,28861,1341,5871,75753,194],"class_list":["post-768177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-donald-trump","tag-dr-oz","tag-education","tag-government-spending","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-medicaid","tag-metro","tag-state-budget","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}