Ravitch calls for overhaul of Medicaid in New York

New York's Medicaid program, an "unwieldy" bureaucracy that costs more than $50 billion annually, has to be overhauled to accommodate growing need and implement federal health-care reform, the lieutenant governor said in a report Monday.

Medicaid, which serves the poor and disabled, "has an unwieldy and overly decentralized structure that serves contradictory goals and provides perverse incentives," Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch's report said

Federal, state and county governments split the cost for the program, which comprises about one-third of the state budget. Medicaid is the single largest driver of increasing budget expenditures at the state level, Ravitch said.

Between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 fiscal years, the cost of the program is projected to increase 27 percent, to $63.5 billion. An increased number of New Yorkers are expected to enroll in 2014 because of the new federal health-care

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