The Washington Post discussed a report and national map from the American Mental Health Counselors Association that showed data on which US states have been implementing new federal Medicaid provisions that increase mental health care access, and which states have been opting out. Could a formal study of the consequences follow?
“The grey states have accepted the expanded Medicaid funds, so the numbers there represent the estimated number of mentally ill patients that were treated,” stated the Washington Post in reference to the map. “An estimated 350,000 people with mental illness received treatment for their conditions, including prescription drugs and regular health visits in 26 states and D.C., which did expand Medicaid in 2014.”
“The green states opted out of the Medicaid expansion, meaning the numbers represent the patients that would have been treated, but weren’t,” reported the Post. “As the map shows, an estimated 66,723 patients in Florida and 62,400 patients in Texas would have received treatment in 2014.”
The Post did not discuss the possibility, but the data suggested that a formal study could soon be done comparing grey and green states and evaluating the positive or negative impacts of expanding America’s mental health care system.
These states leave the most mentally ill adults untreated. Guess what else they have in common. (Washington Post, April 14, 2015)
AMHCA Releases ‘Access Denied’ Report (AMHCA press release, April 6, 2015) (Full report)