No Care for Us

ACCESS DENIED

Non-Medicaid Expansion States Block Uninsured People with Serious Mental Illness from Receiving Affordable, Needed Treatments

Prepared by Joel E. Miller, James K. Finley, Rebecca Gibson and Whitney Meyerhoeffer

A new groundbreaking study from the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) shows that nearly 570,000 people diagnosed with a serious mental health condition, would have received affordable, needed treatments, but were denied access to services because several states refused to participate in the new Medicaid Expansion Program. The federal government would have paid 100 percent of the treatment costs; the monies were already included in the federal budget. The comprehensive study also highlights that 458,000 fewer people would have avoided a depressive disorder mainly by securing health insurance through the Medicaid Expansion Program.

The study, entitled “Access Denied: Non-Medicaid Expansion States Blocked Uninsured People with Serious Mental Illness from Receiving Affordable, Needed Treatments” shows that on a state-by-state basis, thousands of uninsured people who had been diagnosed with a serious mental health condition on January 1, 2014, and residing in the 24 states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, were denied affordable, needed care throughout the year.

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Utah has 15,312 uninsured people ages 18-64 with a serious mental health disorder who were projected to access services under Medicaid expansion.