The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required state Medicaid plans to expand coverage of treatments for substance use disorders (SUDs). Researchers including Clifford Bersamira PhD, of the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, collected and analyzed data from the National Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey and compared enrollment in SUD treatment programs before and after the ACA took effect. The percentage of patients in SUD treatment programs nationally who were insured by Medicaid rose from 26% to 38% after the ACA was implemented. The percentage of patients in these programs who had no insurance fell from 38% to 23%. The findings show that Medicaid increases insurance coverage for people enrolled in specialty SUD treatment, the researchers wrote. The study (PubMed ID: 31202283) is published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
展开▼
