New Blog Post in Health Affairs: Battling The Mental Health Crisis Through State Medicaid Reforms

Deaths from suicide, alcohol, and drugs, or what some call “deaths of despair,” have increased by 51% from 2005 to 2016. Though the Affordable Care Act and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act were important steps forward in advancing access to behavioral health services, much work remains to overcome the persistent challenges to access. 

Based on work with Delta Center grantees and interviews with national and state policy experts, this blog post in Health Affairs describes three key state policy levers to combat the nation’s mental health crisis: expand Medicaid coverage, ensure full implementation of parity laws, and address payment and capacity challenges in the behavioral health workforce.