Online Program

Oral

Children with mental health needs face poor access to care and as a result, families report unmet needs for care. Families report cost as an important barrier. The Affordable Care Act provides new avenues to obtain health insurance coverage and increased choice options together with new standards of coverage. This Special Session describes state decisions regarding standards of coverage and highlights plan features that may expose families raising children with mental health needs to out-of-pocket expenditures. This policy scan is followed by a set of quantitative analyses that describe family insights over child health costs, and important health insurance plan features that families seem to overlook when rating their plans. The session concludes with implications for family education needs around plan choice. The session includes four presentations. 1. Health insurance for children with mental health needs: State mandates, plans and lingering uncertainty 2. Implications for expenditures of parent-reported health consequences for children with mental health needs: ADHD, depression, and autism 3. Health insurance plans and terms: Searching for the gaps in understanding among families raising children with mental health needs 4. Tough choices: Children with mental health needs, private health insurance and family out-of-pocket spending.

Session Objectives: Describe the coverage and coverage limits of mental health and habilitative services, including coverage for autism services, and how they vary across state benchmark plans. Describe the association between CSHCN Screener responses and health expenditures for children with ADHD, depression, or autism. Identify health insurance plan features that families seem to overlook when rating their satisfaction with their plans.