Giving more people health insurance sounds great, but it hasn't actually improved their mental health at all.
While Medicaid expansion successfully removed financial barriers and increased doctor visits, it had zero measurable impact on self-reported mental health. This suggests that insurance cards are useless for mental wellness if they aren't backed by a significant increase in the actual number of available therapists and doctors.
Access Gained, Outcomes Unchanged: The Effects of ACA Medicaid Expansion on Self-Reported Mental Health
SSRN · 6405938
This paper examines whether ACA Medicaid expansion improved self-reported mental health among low income non-elderly adults. Using BRFSS data from 2011 to 2019 and a difference-in-differences framework robust to staggered treatment timing, I estimate the effects of expansion on poor mental health days and frequent mental distress. Medicaid expansion increased insurance coverage by about 4 percentage points, reduced cost-related barriers to care by roughly 2 percentage points, and modestly increa