Half a million uninsured Californians who need mental health treatment could receive services through health care reform
Half a million uninsured adults in California who need mental health treatment could gain access to those services through health care reform, according to a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
In addition to providing new or improved health insurance coverage to as many as 4.6 million Californians, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will also implement the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. Mental health services will be part of the essential benefits package, which is a set of health care services that must be covered by certain plans. These include insurance policies that will be offered through Medi-Cal and the California Health Benefit Exchange.
An estimated 1.6 million California adults reported symptoms that were consistent with severe psychological distress and experienced difficulty with their day-to-day functioning, according to the Center’s 2009 California Health Interview Survey. About a third of those adults – or half a million – were uninsured all or part of the year.
“Health care reform has the potential to dramatically increase the number of Californians who can access mental health services,” said Imelda Padilla-Frausto, the study’s lead author. “Many people who are in desperate need of mental health services could finally be receiving the comprehensive and affordable treatment they need.”
Nearly 70 percent of uninsured adults with mental health needs didn’t receive the mental health treatment they needed in the past year compared with 40 percent of adults with public insurance coverage and 46 percent with private insurance, according to the 2009 survey. With almost half of adults with both mental health needs and health insurance coverage also reporting no treatment, other barriers such as stigma may be keeping adults from receiving the mental health services they need.
Latino and Asian immigrants are particularly vulnerable populations, previous Center research has shown; even though both groups as a whole have better mental health, they are least likely to receive treatment.
“The full implementation of health care reform in 2014 is an opportunity to improve anti-stigma programs and to tailor mental health services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to reach ethnically diverse populations,” Padilla-Frausto added.
Read the report: Half a Million Uninsured California Adults with Mental Health Needs Are Eligible for Health Coverage Expansions
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health-related information on Californians.
