Arizona budget: Mentally ill may lose health benefits

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Arizona budget: Mentally ill may lose health benefits
Brewer's budget plan seeks to cut coverage

by Mary K. Reinhart - Jan. 15, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Gov. Jan Brewer's plan to roll back state Medicaid coverage would leave thousands of Arizona's most mentally fragile without health care.

An estimated 5,200 people diagnosed with a serious mental illness and thousands more who qualify for other behavioral-health services would be among 280,000 childless adults losing health-care coverage under the governor's plan.

To mitigate the hit on the seriously mentally ill, Brewer wants to spend $10.3 million to prevent gaps in their psychiatric medication. They would lose coverage for all other medical care, including prescription drugs for physical ailments, as well as case management, transportation and housing they receive through the state's behavioral-health-care program.

Mental-health advocates say losing case management and other connections to the community, along with their general health-care coverage, would be a devastating blow to an already vulnerable population. And it will put a greater burden on hospitals and the criminal-justice system.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/15/20110115arizona-budget-mentally-ill-health-benefits.html#ixzz1B8PJSQ8D