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News Brief
June 5, 2025 |
By: Caitlyn Miller
Impacts due to potential Medicaid funding cuts
Across the U.S., access to mental health care is at risk due to potential Medicaid funding cuts. The joint federal-state health program covers health care for about 72 million low-income or disabled Americans. Nationally, in an analysis done by the financial consulting company Strata for KFF Health News, Medicaid covered nearly 41 percent of psychiatric inpatients. Leaders within the hospital industry say spending cuts could accelerate a decades-long wave of psychiatric unit closures. Unfortunately, rural Iowa already lacks available mental health services. According to a state registry, as of February, only 20 out of Iowa's 116 hospitals had inpatient psychiatric units. In addition, there are also four freestanding mental health hospitals, two of which are state-run. However, most of these units are located in urban areas, and it can take several days for spaces to open. Otherwise, patients regularly wait for care in emergency rooms. Spencer Hospital, in Spencer, Iowa, is one of the smallest in the state still offering mental health services. At least eight other hospitals in rural Iowa have stopped offering inpatient psychological care since 2007, which forces those in crisis to seek help farther away. Local resident David Jacobsen is grateful for the hospital's effort to continue providing these services. In spite of the facility's stretched resources, they helped David's son Alex throughout years of mental health struggles when other hospitals in the state weren't able to before Alex died by suicide in 2020.David Jacobsen knows how reliant such services are on Medicaid and is worried that more hospitals will scale back or shut down their mental health services if the program is defunded. The Jacobsen family witnessed firsthand how important access to these services is, as well as just how often they're sought out.
