Report Summarizes Mental Health Diseases and Conditions Study Findings from Health Policy and Management (Examining the Impact of Aca Medicaid Expansion On Insurance Coverage, Access To Care and Health of Low-income Parents): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2025 MAY 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions. According to news originating from College Station, Texas, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To examine longer-term effects of Medicaid expansion on insurance coverage, access to care, and health, and investigate heterogeneous effects across demographic characteristics of low-income parents. Setting and Design: We estimated linear probability models for having healthcare coverage and access to care and reporting days of not good physical and mental health in the past 30 days.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Health Policy and Management, “We adjusted for individual- and state-level factors, and state and year fixed effects. Our treatment group included low-income parents residing in Medicaid expansion states, and our control group included high-income parents residing in Medicaid expansion states and ineligible for any Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. We used difference-in-differences and event-study designs. Data Sources and Analytic Sample: Nationally representative secondary data on self-reported insurance, access, and health status from the core component (2011-2019) of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) among respondents aged 26-54 with at least one child living in the household. Medicaid expansion was associated with a 13.4 percentage point (pp) increase in the probability of reporting any health insurance (p < 0.001), an 11.3 pp decline in the probability of reporting a cost barrier (p < 0.001), and a 2.4 pp decrease in the probability of reporting days in poor mental health (p = 0.028) among low-income parents. Our results also suggest parents who were married and those identifying as non-Hispanic white (relative to Hispanic and non-Hispanic other/multiple race) experienced the largest increases in health insurance coverage. While Medicaid expansions improved insurance coverage, access to care, and health status among low-income parents, disparities persisted and, in some cases, widened.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These findings have significant implications for policymakers as they consider policies aimed at increasing access to care.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Examining the Impact of Aca Medicaid Expansion On Insurance Coverage, Access To Care and Health of Low-income Parents. Health Services Research, 2025. Health Services Research can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Health Services Research - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-6773)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Elena Andreyeva, Health Policy and Management, College Stn, TX 77843, United States. Additional authors for this research include Hannah I. Rochford and Daniel J. Marthey.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.14625. 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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