U.S. alcohol treatment admissions after the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act: Do state parity laws and race/ethnicity make a difference?

The Role of Policies in Cancer Pain, Health Disparities, and Substance Use

“…185,186 The ACA, and closely-related laws such as the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), have helped to address this disparity and have been shown to differentially impact substance use treatment rates with greater benefits for people of color. 187 Medicaid expansion has increased coverage rates across all racial and ethnic groups, but disparities in coverage rates between groups remain. 188,189 While the benefits of Medicaid expansion disproportionately apply to racial and ethnic marginalized groups, 190 in practice, many of the health benefits from expansion (e.g., having a source of usual care, having health needs met, having an annual health check-up), may be restricted to white low-income childless adults based on previous findings.…”