The Affordable Care Act requires health plans to provide mental health services. That means the newly insured will have the option to seek care anywhere they want. This has thrust publicly run mental health clinics into a new landscape of competition.
Stanislaus was one of the first counties in California to submit a plan for funding from the Mental Health Services Act, the voter-supported tax on millionaires to expand the state’s mental health services.
Deputy David Frost, who oversees a California county jail’s two mental health wings, said it’s not uncommon for seriously ill inmates to wait there for months, even after a judge orders them transferred to a state hospital.
California communities have received millions of dollars for mental health treatment from a new state tax. Are they wasting it? Get tips on how to find out.
