1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Congress is considering significant cuts to Medicaid- this could be devastating to mental healthcare access. Medicaid provides affordable healthcare to more than 80 million low-income individuals. It is the primary insurance for many marginalized communities, covering about -          80% of children in poverty (https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/health-insurance-coverage-children-under-100-fpl/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D) -          48% of adults (https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/poor-adults/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D) in poverty -          35% of people with disabilities (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-coverage-for-people-with-disabilities/) -          Many individuals experiencing homelessness (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-medicaid/) Deep cuts to Medicaid funding on the federal lead could lead states to decrease the number of people eligible for Medicaid and/or reduce provider payment rates (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/a-medicaid-per-capita-cap-state-by-state-estimates/#:~:text=Beyond%20reduced%20Medicaid%20spending%20and,as%20hospitals%20and%20nursing%20facilities.) , limiting access to needed care and disrupting provider funding. Cuts would be particularly harmful to mental healthcare. Medicaid is the single largest mental healthcare payer in the country , 29% non-elderly adults with  any mental illness (https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-coverage-for-adults-with-mental-illness/) are on Medicaid and mental health providers receive billions of dollars from Medicaid. Cutting or restricting Medicaid could be enormously harmful by reducing client access to needed services like counseling; disrupting clients’ treatment; and reducing Medicaid payments to counselors.