Access to Medicaid and Behavioral Health Care Provisions in Congress’s Recent Funding Package

Commonwealth Fund April 30, 2024
Dawn Joyce, Lena Marceno

TOPLINES

The 2024 “minibus” congressional appropriations package includes reforms to increase the availability of treatment for mental health or substance use disorders for people with Medicaid

Congress has taken action to help ensure the more than 78 million Medicaid beneficiaries can get the behavioral health care they need

More than 78 million Americans — nearly one of four — are insured by Medicaid. In 2020, an estimated 40 percent of the nonelderly adult Medicaid population experienced a substance use or mental health disorder. Consequently, expanding Medicaid coverage can improve health outcomes for people with behavioral health care needs. The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, for instance, improved access to care for people with depression and other psychological distress.

In the...

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