Stronger State Insurance Laws Improve Mental Health Care Access for Kids

  • Aug 16, 2024

    Children and adolescents were much more likely to access necessary mental and behavioral health (MBH) services if they lived in states that mandate insurance coverage for mental health care, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

    The study is based on responses from almost 30,000 caregivers of kids and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years with mental and behavioral health conditions in the National Survey of Children’s Health and State Mental Health Insurance Laws Dataset (SMHILD) from 2016 to 2019. The comprehensiveness of state MBH insurance laws was defined by the SMHILD score and categorized as 0 to 2, 3, 4, and 5 to 7.

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  • Jinghong Chen

    Jinghong has been producing infographics and data stories on employer-sponsored insurance, public health insurance programs and prescription drug coverage for AIS Health’s Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits since 2018. She also manages AIS Health’s annual executive compensation database for top insurers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates. Before joining AIS Health, she interned at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting.

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