Who established Medicaid, and who administers it?

Medicaid was established as a joint federal and state program created by the Social Security Amendments of 1965. The federal government set forth the guidelines and funding structure, but the actual administration of the program is conducted at the state level. Each state has the flexibility to design its own Medicaid programs within the federal framework, determining the benefits offered, eligibility criteria, and the management of services.

This arrangement allows states to tailor Medicaid to meet their particular healthcare needs and populations. Therefore, the accurate characterization of Medicaid's establishment and administration is that it was created by the federal government and is managed by individual states. This reflects the cooperative federalism model that underlines many social programs in the U.S., providing both federal oversight and state-specific adaptations.