Access to mental and behavioral health services is a serious issue currently facing the U.S. health care system. Even as the nation has taken great strides over the past several years to expand coverage and drastically reduce the number of uninsured, access to mental health services and substance use disorder treatments continues to lag behind. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five adults — and one in five children aged 13-18 — experiences mental illness in the U.S. in any given year. In 2014, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that over 20 million Americans had a substance use disorder, and nearly 8 million of those also suffered from mental illness.
For more information about CHA's activities and positions on this issue, see the CHA policy brief.