Medicaid Expansion Expected To Strain Mental Health Services

Sunday, February 23, 2014 SPORK! 0 Comments

WASHINGTON — As millions of Americans gain health coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, experts say their higher rates of mental health and substance abuse disorders will be difficult to treat due to a lack of counselors and behavioral therapists who accept Medicaid patients.

In the District of Columbia and the 25 states where the expansion is under way, nearly 1.2 million uninsured adults newly eligible for coverage will have substance abuse problems, according to federal estimates, and more than 1.2 million are projected to have some sort of mental illness. An estimated 550,000 of those will have serious mental disorders that impair their everyday functioning.

As these patients seek treatment for any number of problems, a shortage of caregivers — from physicians to dentists — will pose a major challenge for Medicaid, the federal-state health program for poor people and those with disabilities. The lack of providers may be most acute in the area of mental health services.

Read the full article at Disability Scoop 

(http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/02/18/medicaid-strain-mental-health/19118/)