When it comes to the 2010 Census, Maine has a lot at stake. It's ranked eighth for the amount of federal money it gets per person, based on its Census numbers. That's according to a new report from the Brookings Institution, a policy research group.

"You're getting close to $500 more per person than the rest of the country," says Brookings Fellow Andrew Reamer. Reamer says the federal government spends more than $1,900 per Mainer, compared to the national average of about $1,400 per person.

Reamer says part of that has to do with the fact that Maine is rural with a small population, so more money per person is spent on roads and bridges. "You're getting more money per capita for transportation because you have lot of open space to cover, and not a lot of people," he says.

But nationally, what's drawing down the most federal funds by far is Medicaid. Known in Maine as MaineCare, the program provides health insurance to low-income people.

The federal government matches state Medicaid dollars. And because the Census shows that Mainers have a lower-than-average income, Maine gets a higher federal match.

"Maine gets 63-cents back on the dollar," Reamer says. "The way Medicaid works is that the richer the state, the lower the reimbursement. So there are a lot of states who only get 50-cents back on the dollar -- Maryland, for instance, or Massachusetts, Minnesota -- New Hampshire gets 50-cents back on the dollar."

There's another reason Maine gets more federal funds per capita. MaineCare has broader eligibility rules than programs in other states. About a fifth of Maine's population -- or 220,000 people -- rely on MaineCare.

Trish Riley is health policy director under Gov. John Baldacci.
"We've used Medicaid effectively to help cover the uninsured," says Trish Riley, Gov. John Baldacci's health policy director. "It's one of the reasons we have one of the lowest rates of uninsured in the country. For the total population, it's 9.6 percent, and I think we rank sixth among the states."

In some states, you have to live at the poverty line to qualify for Medicaid. But in Maine, parents living at twice the poverty level -- about $44,000 for a household of four -- can receive MaineCare.

Riley points out that Maine also has a large elderly population that receives federal health insurance through Medicare but are poor enough to also qualify for MaineCare. They also help to draw down federal dollars.

"Because of the age of Maine, there is a significant expenditure here for long-term care and home care for the elderly, because the Medicare program does not pay for long-term care for nursing homes, but the Medicaid program does."

Other states with expansive Medicaid programs are also in the top ten when it comes to receiving federal assistance, such as Vermont and New York.

Now, state officials are encouraging Mainers to respond to the Census because they say it will help Maine get its fair share of federal funds. They say it will also help determine where in the state the money is most needed.

"The key element is that the decennial Census tells us how many people there are in the state, and where they are in the state," says Amanda Rector, a senior economist in the Maine State Planning Office and a liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau. "So we need to know to figure out where the funding needs to go, which communities have higher populations of the elderly."

Maine's response rate to the 2000 Census was 61 percent -- compared to the national average of 67 percent.

The Brookings report indicates Maine should try to boost that rate. It projects that for every Mainer counted, Maine will be able to add another $1,300 to its federal income.