The National Law Program published this flip chart which contains various scenarios and barriers that low-income youth with behavioral health conditions might face when trying to access services, and includes suggested steps an advocate could take to work through those barriers.
![The National Health Law Program
Introduction:
- Medicaid is the country’s most inclusive health care program, providing high quality, affordable coverage to more than 75 million low-income individuals. Approximately 38% of all children are covered by Medicaid.
- Medicaid plays an outsized role in
funding behavioral health services – it is the single largest payer for mental health and substance use disorder services.
- In exchange for federal funding, states must meet a number of requirements governing who is eligible, what health care must be
provided, and protections for enrollees.
- One of these Medicaid requirements is Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment
(EPSDT) – a benefit that entitles low-income children under age twenty one to a myriad of medically necessary behavioral health services.
Because of the EPSDT benefit, children in Medicaid are often entitled to an array of community-based behavioral health interventions that children enrolled in private insurance are not.](https://mch.umn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Capture-829x1024.png)
NOTE: This is not your average issue brief or report. It enables you to flow through scenarios and barriers for action and access!