ASPE Issue Brief

As the largest payer of mental health services in the United States, Medicaid programs have an opportunity to promote high-quality care for serious and persistent mental illnesses (SPMI) through the use of reimbursement strategies and policies that encourage the delivery of evidence-based practices (EBPs).

New results released September 21, 2011, by the National Center for Health Statistics show that the dependent-coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act has had a significant impact on improving insurance coverage among young adults.

According to the Census Bureau's 2011 Current Population Survey (CPS), there were 49.9 million uninsured individuals in 2010, or 16.3% of the total population. Those that lack insurance are a diverse group. Understanding the uninsured population is important for policy makers looking to design solutions to the problem. [5 PDF pages]

This paper is the third in a series on SNPs and their relationship to Medicaid. In the second paper of the series, we identified all states which had some kind of contractual relationship with SNPs prior to MIPPA, and classified those relationships into broad categories.

According to the Census Bureau's 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS), 45.8 million individuals in 2004 or 15.7% of the civilian non-institutionalized population were uninsured. Those that lack insurance represent a diverse group. Understanding the uninsured population is important for policy makers looking to design solutions to the problem.

According to the annual reports of the Social Security and Medicare trustees, the financial outlook for the two programs is not favorable. Under the central forecasts reported for the past 16 years under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, both programs face significant long-range