Budget Blog

Governors' Budgets for FY2020: Trends in Health & Human Services

By Stacey Mazer posted 03-06-2019 12:38 PM

  

Governors in 44 states have released their budget recommendations for fiscal 2020 as of March 4.  With most states experiencing strong revenue growth in fiscal 2018 and early fiscal 2019, services in health and human services often saw modest increases. States organize their health and human services in a variety of ways in their state budgets and the issues highlighted span a range of agencies and funding sources. Health and human services often comprise the most significant share of state spending after education and include many programs that rely in part on federal funding, such as Medicaid.

This issue brief highlights some of the key themes in this program area across governors’ proposed budgets for fiscal 2020. Topics covered include Medicaid expansion, behavioral health, provider rate changes, pharmacy costs, health insurance costs and coverage, children’s health, and child welfare. The state examples provided are meant to be illustrative but not exhaustive.