• Press Release

White Patients with Mental Illness Up to 50 Percent More Likely to Report Insufficient Money for Medications and Mental Health Care and Delays in Care Compared to Other Race and Ethnic Groups

Loss of Employement-Related Coverage During Great Recession May be a Factor

  • New York, NY
  • (February 01, 2018)

White patients with mental illness were significantly more likely to report insufficient money for needed prescription medications and mental health care and delays in care compared to other race and ethnic groups, a Mount Sinai study found. Whites experienced 50 percent greater risk for delays in care; and 20 percent increased risk for both insufficient money for needed medications and mental health care compared to blacks, Mount Sinai researchers found.

Using Centers for Disease Control (CDC) national survey data from 200,000 respondents between 2006 to 2015, the research team examined the growing disparities reported by white adults with mental illness in their ability to receive health care compared to other race and ethnic groups.

The results of the study will be published online in Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association on February 1 at 12:01 AM EST.

A greater proportion of whites with serious psychological distress used private coverage compared to black and Hispanic adults with serious psychological distress, while black adults were more likely to have Medicaid compared to other races and ethnicities. The Great Recession of 2008–2009 affected health coverage for white, black, and Hispanic adults with serious psychological distress for several years after the event. With recovery and return to fuller employment, white adults with serious psychological distress may have regained private insurance coverage. However, during periods of high unemployment, they may have been at a disadvantage in not having the stability offered by Medicaid coverage, where coverage is indepedant of employment.

 “The results of our research are surprising in light of numerous studies demonstrating disparities in healthcare utilization among adults in racial and ethnic minority groups,” said  the study’s lead author Judith Weissman, PhD, JD, assistant professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Black and Hispanic adults have historically fared worse than white adults, who disproportionately use private coverage. Our study revealed that health coverage and access in the mentally ill can be jeopardized by an economic recession if it is tied to private coverage through employment.”

The research introduces the possibility that limited access to health care may contribute to the current reported increase in poor health outcomes in white middle aged adults.

The study’s senior author is Dolores Malaspina, MD, MPH, Director, Psychosis Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Among the study’s other findings were that women showed decreased health care utilization compared with men, validating earlier studies demonstrating that women were more likely thanmen to experience delays in care. The greatest proportion of white and black adults with serious psychological distress resided in the South. This region also had the greatest proportion with serious psychological distress and no health coverage. The results suggest that access to care was worse for patients living in states that were less likely to expand Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act.

Other institutions involved in the study include NYU School of Medicine.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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