Nearly 4 Million Mentally Ill Are Being Left Without Insurance

An estimated 3.7 million Americans suffering from various mental illnesses and conditions won't have access to care covered by insurance as long as some United States regions continue to refuse to expand Medicaid programs under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, according to a recent report.

A detailed study and report out from the American Mental Heal Counselors Association (AMHCA) provides evidence that suggests that 3.7 million United States citizens who are currently without insurance coverage for their mental illness, psychological pain, and/or substance abuse problems will continue to live without treatment coverage despite the fact that Medicaid provisions introduced by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were designed to meet their need.

According to the AMHCA, 25 Union states have refused to adhere to new provisions for Medicaid expansion set that accompany the implementation of the ACA. Reasons for this refusal vary, ranging from simple administrative resource inability -- arguments about the cost effectiveness of the new change -- to what some critics are calling 'partisan-driven' political posturing.

Interestingly, according to the AMHCA, the ACA provisions detail that the federal government, not the states, will pay for 100 percent of the expansion's costs for the first three years of its implementation, and will taper to 90 percent by 2020 and beyond. The funds for this change are already included in the federal budget.

Joe Miller, the executive director of AMHCA, told USA Today that these refusals are tragic, and said that citizens who expected a better life and better health with the introduction of the provisions "will see their hopes dashed" by state officials.

However, don't be so quick to cast the states in question as the villains of this apparent drama. The same U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act -- commonly known as "Obamacare" -- also granted states the right to opt out f the accompanying Medicaid eligibility expansion provisions in the interest of protecting State rights.

Still, according to the AMHCA's study, only about 3 million of the 6.7 million mentally ill Americans the provision intended to make eligible for care coverage will now be receiving it due to state refusals.

According to the data, which was compiled using statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health -- an annual survey carried out by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Census Bureau -- if even two states, Texas and Florida, decide to cooperate with the ACA's expansions, an additional 1.1 million uninsured people with serious mental health and substance abuse conditions would gain insurance coverage and access to federally funded assistance.

The full report detailing the Medicaid change and the refusing states was first published by the AMHCA on February 26.

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