Executive Summary
Medicaid offers myriad optional services and benefits that states can cover, as well as a minimum baseline of services that must be covered. This paper details the optional and mandatory services and how they are tailored to meet the health care needs of low-income people and underserved communities. The paper also explains how congressional proposals to slash Medicaid funding would endanger these vital health care services.
For additional information about unique and important aspects of the Medicaid program, check out our entire What Makes Medicaid, Medicaid? series. And for a high-level overview of this paper, see our Highlights: What Makes Medicaid, Medicaid? – Services factsheet.
This paper was originally published in 2017 and an archival copy can be found here.
