Mental Health Treatment Among Individuals Involved in the Criminal Justice System After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

The objective of this study was to assess changes in health insurance coverage and mental health treatment among individuals with and without involvement in the criminal justice system after implementation of key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health were used to assess changes in coverage, mental health treatment, and payer between 2011–2013 and 2014–2017 for nonelderly adults (ages 19 to 64) with and without criminal justice involvement in the past year who reported serious psychological distress. Multivariable logistic regression was used to obtain adjusted estimates.

The weighted sample represented, on average, 2.0 million individuals with criminal justice involvement (total unweighted N=3,688) and 20.9 million without criminal justice involvement (total unweighted N=33,872) in each study year. Following implementation of the ACA’s key provisions, health insurance coverage increased by 13.4 percentage points (95% CI=8.5–18.3) among individuals with past year criminal justice involvement and by 8.1 percentage points (95% CI=6.9–9.4) among those without. Receipt of any mental health treatment did not change significantly among individuals with criminal justice involvement (−3.4 percentage points [95% CI=–8.0 to 1.1]), whereas it increased significantly in the general population (2.2 percentage points [95% CI=0.4–3.9]).

Despite an increase in health insurance coverage for people with criminal justice involvement, there was no increase in mental health treatment following implementation of the ACA’s key provisions. Health insurance coverage is necessary, but not sufficient, to expand access to mental health treatment for individuals involved in the criminal justice system.