Medicaid is one of the major forms of government insurance programs in the United States.

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Medicaid was created to provide health care coverage and access to a group of people that otherwise would not have been able to be insured. Although it is portrayed as insurance for the poor, it gives coverage to the medically needy based on income and assets. Therefore, Medicaid is “considered a means-tested program” (Shi & Singh, 2001, p.197). Each State runs its own Medicaid program establishing the eligibility criteria, covered services and how the providers are goins to be paid. The program is jointly financed by the federal and state government but it is not a 50-50 enterprise. The federal government matches funds based on per capita income in each state and it can range from 50 to 83% of the total cost of the Medicaid program in the state (Shi & Singh, 2001).

Because they receive federal funding, the states have to comply with certain federal mandated services. These include certain inpatient and outpatient hospital care; laboratory and x-ray; family …