Investigators from Yale University School of Medicine Zero in on Mental Disorders (Health Insurance and Mental Health Treatment Use Among Adults With Criminal Legal Involvement After Medicaid Expansion): Mental Disorders

2023 DEC 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on Mental Disorders have been published. According to news reporting originating from New Haven, Connecticut, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Individuals with criminal legal involvement have high rates of substance use and other mental disorders. Before implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, they also had low health insurance coverage.”

Funders for this research include NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Yale National Clinician Scholars Program, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Yale University School of Medicine, “The objective of this study was to assess the impact of Medicaid expansion on health insurance coverage and use of treatment for substance use or other mental disorders in this population. The authors used restricted data (2010-2017) from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Using a difference-in-differences approach, the authors estimated the impact of Medicaid expansion on health insurance coverage and treatment for substance use or other mental disorders among individuals with recent criminal legal involvement. The sample consisted of 9,910 NSDUH respondents who were ages 18-64 years, had a household income <= 138% of the federal poverty level, and reported past-year criminal legal involvement. Medicaid expansion was associated with an 18 percentage-point increase in insurance coverage but no change in receipt of substance use treatment among individuals with substance use disorder. Individuals with any other mental illness had a 16 percentage-point increase in insurance coverage but no change in receipt of mental health treatment. Despite a large increase in health insurance coverage among individuals with criminal legal involvement and substance use or other mental disorders, Medicaid expansion was not associated with a significant change in treatment use for these conditions.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Insurance access alone appears to be insufficient to increase treatment for substance use or other mental disorders in this population.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Health Insurance and Mental Health Treatment Use Among Adults With Criminal Legal Involvement After Medicaid Expansion. Psychiatric Services, 2023;74(10):1019-1026. Psychiatric Services can be contacted at: Amer Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, 800 Maine Ave SW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20024, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Benjamin A. Howell, Yale University School of Medicine, Seiche Ctr Hlth & Justice, New Haven, CT 06510, United States. Additional authors for this research include Emily A. Wang, Lilanthi Balasuriya, Laura C. Hawks, Virginia W. Chang and Tyler N. A. Winkelman.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20220171. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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