Snapshot: Medicaid and Special Education

Medicaid covers one in five Americans.
Medicaid is the nation’s largest health care provider.
Medicaid covers 40% of America’s children – over 30 million children.
Medicaid covers half of all births in America.
One in five Medicaid dollars is spent on children.
2/3 of the school districts that bill Medicaid use the money to pay salaries of employees who work directly with children such as school nurses and therapists.
Medicaid reimbursement constitutes the third largest federal funding stream to our nation’s public schools.
Medicaid costs roughly $553 billion dollars, with $346 billion coming from the federal government and the remaining $204 billion from States.
Nationwide, more than $4 billion in Medicaid goes to schools, or roughly 1 percent of all Medicaid.