Health Care Reform and Mental Health Care Delivery

Three articles in this issue of the journal review economic and policy implications for mental health delivery of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, referred to as the ACA. The authors highlight opportunities for great improvement, as well as challenges, in the financing and delivery of mental health care in the United States. The ACA incrementally expands existing insurance, and it also creates and encourages the development and diffusion of important new institutions and organizational forms that will govern insurance markets and service provision. Garfield and colleagues describe these expansions. McGuire and Sinaiko explain the role of health insurance exchanges in restructuring the individual and small-group markets. Druss and Mauer explain the potential of new organizational forms to promote integration of mental health and other medical care, along with improved approaches to specialty care delivery. (November 2010)