The Effects of the Affordable Care Act Adult Dependent Coverage Expansion on Mental Health.

This study provides the first estimates of a broad range of mental health outcomes that may be responsive to changes in mental health care use and/or the increased financial security that insurance confers. For the population as a whole, there were few short-term changes in young adults' mental health outcome relative to older adults. However, the relative increase in the SF-12 score among young adults, while small, is likely meaningful at a population level given the observed effect sizes for this measure obtained in clinical trials. IMPLICATIONS: The vast majority of mental illnesses emerge before individuals reach age 24. Public policy designed to expand health insurance coverage to this population has the potential to influence mental health in a relatively short time frame. PMID: 27084790 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics - Category: Psychiatry Tags: J Ment Health Policy Econ Source Type: research