"Medicate Is the Largest Payer of Mental Health Services in the USA,.."

Medicate Is the Largest Payer of Mental Health Services in the USA,...

by Addison at the Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/15/1170307/-Medicaid-is-the-largest-payer-of-mental-health-services-in-the-USA-GOP-wants-to-decimate-it#

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Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services in the United States, contributing more than any other private or public source of funding. In 2003, Medicaid spent over $26 billion on mental health services — about 26 percent of total national mental health expenditures. This number has grown from approximately $7.5 billion (16.1 percent of total spending) in 1986, when Medicaid contributed less than three other payers: state and local governments, private health insurance, and consumers.


The increase in Medicaid spending is primarily the result of the shift in service delivery from public institutions, where (as described later) Medicaid funding is limited, to community-based services, for which Medicaid covers a larger share of the costs and provides greater access. Other factors contributing to the increase in Medicaid costs include eligibility expansions, increased use of services, and state cost shifting.

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Over the next 10 years, the Ryan plan would cut Medicaid by $642 billion by repealing the Affordable Care Act and by $750 billion through new caps on federal spending—a 34 percent cut to Medicaid spending over the next decade, according to Edwin Park of the Center and Budget and Policy Priorities.

Who would that impact? First, by overturning the ACA, the Ryan plan would prevent 11 million people from gaining Medicaid coverage by 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimates.

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