Study finds ACA may not improve mental health care access

A new study has found that only half of psychiatrists in the U.S. accept insurance, posing a challenge to the effectiveness of an ACA requirement that all insurers cover mental health care the same as physical health care (Source: “Study: Obamacare may not improve access to mental health care,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 2, 2014).

From 2009 to 2010, 53 percent of psychiatrists accepted insurance, compared with 89 percent of all other physicians who did, said Tara Bishop, associate professor of public health and medicine at Cornell Medical College. She looked at data from the National Center for Health Statistics and released her team’s findings in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“We saw declines in the last few years in rates of acceptance, and we were wondering why,” Bishop told USA Today. “I think we’ve all heard a lot of patient stories and doctor stories about trying to find a psychiatrist who takes insurance.”

She said she was surprised by the 36-percentage-point discrepancy.

“It seemed to be getting worse in more recent years,” she said. “We saw similar things for Medicare: 54.8 percent  of psychiatrists took Medicare, as opposed to 86 percent  of other physicians.”