A major initiative of Governor Andrew Cuomo's first term was his attempt to rein in the chronically high costs of New York's Medicaid program.
His reforms, including an inflation-based “global cap” on state Medicaid outlays, showed impressive results in their early years. Overall spending growth slowed considerably, even as enrollment surged with the implementation of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act. Per-recipient spending – a key indicator of efficiency – declined by $1,200, or 11 percent, from 2011 to 2016. New York's program remained far costlier than those of most other states, but it was moving closer to the U.S. average.
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