American Health Care Act (AHCA) that just passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The AHCA poses a major threat to the gains made in behavioral health care in California since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” said CBHDA Executive Director Kirsten Barlow. The AHCA will turn back the clock on the provision of mental health and substance use disorder services to millions of Californians and will stifle county innovation that reduces criminal recidivism and homelessness in our communities. Impacts will be deep and broad:
● Essential Health Benefits (EHBs) eviscerated. The EHBs required under the ACA have just recently given millions of Californians access to lifesaving mental health and substance use disorder services. The AHCA will allow states to gut these and other fundamental benefits. This will force people into crisis, into emergency departments, and result in increased opioid deaths at the height of the epidemic. Services will be lost that help people stay in jobs and in housing, keep children from entering foster care, and keep people out of jail.
● Loss of Medicaid funding will compromise behavioral health services for the Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal. The ACHA slashes federal funding for Medi-Cal: California’s loss will be $25 billion annually by 2027.The state will be forced to cut Medi-Cal enrollment; eliminate critical services; and pass on costs to counties, providers and consumers. These changes will hit county behavioral health hard. Since California recently expanded eligibility rules for Medi-Cal, county behavioral health systems are serving tens of thousands of newly insured beneficiaries. County mental health services delivered to this “expansion population” are estimated to draw down over $600 million in federal matching funds in FY 2015-2016, and county substance use disorder services are estimated to draw down over $500 million in federal match during FY 2017-2018. Funding to deliver services to these beneficiaries will be at extreme risk if the AHCA is passed. It will mean astronomical numbers of Californians will again be uninsured.
● Behavioral health benefits available to Medi-Cal managed care plan enrollees are in jeopardy. Over 10 million Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal managed care plans will no longer have access to health plan mental health services. They will lose access to psychotherapy, outpatient services and medication. Under the AHCA, people’s mental health symptoms will have to become severe and disabling before they’ll have access to basic mental health treatments.
If enacted, the AHCA would reverse the significant progress our state has made in providing life-changing and necessary behavioral health and substance use disorder services to millions of California residents.
About the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California
CBHDA is a non-profit advocacy association representing the behavioral health directors from each of California’s 58 counties, as well as two cities (Berkeley and Tri-City). The mission of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association is to assure the accessibility of quality, cost-effective, culturally competent behavioral health care for the people of the state of California by providing the leadership, advocacy, and support to public behavioral health programs
Source: CBHDA
