Medicaid and African American outpatient mental health treatment.
The present study tested the hypothesis that Medicaid-financed African Americans would be more likely to receive outpatient mental health treatment than African Americans whose treatment was financed by private insurance. The hypothesis was confirmed: when compared with privately insured persons eligible for care under either fee-for-service or managed care, the Black-White gap in outpatient service use was significantly smaller under Medicaid. There was no racial difference in outpatient treatment rates among the uninsured. The often-noted difference between Blacks and Whites in the likelihood of receiving outpatient mental health treatment is confined largely to the privately insured.
Snowden
L R
LR
Center for Mental Health Services Research, School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, 94720-7400, USA. snowden@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Thomas
K
K
D001741:Black or African American; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged