Access To Mental Health Care Increased But Not For Substance Use, While Disparities Remain.
We assessed whether early implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion and state health insurance exchanges increased access to mental health and substance use treatment among those in need and whether these changes differed by racial/ethnic group. We found that mental health treatment rates increased significantly but found no evidence of a reduction in the wide racial/ethnic disparities in mental health treatment that preceded ACA expansion from 2005 to 2013.
Timothy B. Creedon (tcreedon@brandeis.edu) is a doctoral student at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, and a research associate at the Health Equity Research Lab, Cambridge Health Alliance, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Timothy B
TB
Creedon
Benjamin Lê Cook is director of the Health Equity Research Lab at Cambridge Health Alliance and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
Benjamin Lê
BL
Cook
D000328:Adult; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
Disparities; Health Reform; Insurance Coverage < Insurance; Mental Health/Substance Abuse