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The Effects of Medicaid Cost Cutting within the North Carolina Mental Health Industry
Chapter 1
The Mental Health System in the state of North Carolina has fought for years to retain funding for the mentally ill. As with many parts of this nation, however, this state has turned away from the needs of the mentally. There has always been a connection between overcrowding within the prisons and revolving doors of the area emergency rooms. The State chose to cut costs and with this, the funding from Medicaid for mental health programs has dissipated. Medicaid was created to be the family-in-need-family-friendly source of funding for various mental health programs. A review of Medicaid cuts over the past two years reveals that there has been an increase in homelessness, substance abuse, and institutionalization due to the lack of funding for mental health needs. Various Mental Health Agencies, practitioners, families, guardians, and advocates have protested these cuts to local Management Entities and the State Mental Reform Committee. Without hard evidence, however, this fight has fallen on deaf ears. The purpose of this research is to determine how the cut in Medicaid has affected the mental health population in a negative manner and why the cut costs have been handed over to other programs, such as building prisons, which itself is caused by the Medicaid cuts to begin with. This research will also discover why the number of hospitalizations for the mentally ill increased since the cost cutting of funds and programs went into e ...