Assistance program
Grants to States for Medicaid
$4.8 Trillion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.778
- What it does
- To provide financial assistance to States for payments of medical assistance on behalf of cash assistance recipients, children, pregnant women, and the aged who meet income and resource requirements, and other categorically-eligible groups. In certain States that elect to provide such coverage, medically-needy persons, who, except for income and resources, would be eligible for cash assistance, may be eligible for medical assistance payments under this program. Financial assistance is provided to States to pay for Medicare premiums, copayments and deductibles of qualified Medicare beneficiaries meeting certain income requirements. More limited financial assistance is available for certain Medicare beneficiaries with higher incomes.
- Who benefits
- Low-income persons who are over age 65, blind or disabled, members of families with dependent children, low- income children and pregnant women, certain Medicare beneficiaries and, in many States, medically-needy individuals may apply to a State or local welfare agency for medical assistance. At the State's option, eligibility to non-elderly individuals with family incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level will start in calendar year 2014. Eligibility is determined by the State in accordance with Federal regulations.
- Who applies
- State and local welfare agencies must operate under an HHS-approved Medicaid State Plan and comply with all Federal regulations governing aid and medical assistance to the needy.
- Authorized by
- Social Security Act, Title XIX, as amended; Public Laws 89-97, 90-248, and 91-56; 42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq., as amended; Public Law 92-223; Public Law 92-603; Public Law 93-66; Public Law 93-233; Public Law 96-499; Public Law 97-35; Public Law 97-248; Public Law 98-369; Public Law 9…
- Program site
- http://www.cms.hhs.gov/contracts/. ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments