The ACA Medicaid expansions and the supply of substance use disorder treatment services in Spanish

Background

Given persistent disparities in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment for Spanish speakers, it is important to understand whether major health policy changes may improve access to linguistically competent services. We estimate changes in the supply of SUD treatment facilities that both accept Medicaid as payment and offer services in Spanish after the Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act.

Methods

We use data from the Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Tracking Repository for years 2010–2020 to calculate the number of facilities per 100 that offered both services in Spanish and accepted Medicaid as payment, facilities per 100 that accepted Medicaid as a form of payment overall, and facilities per 100 that offered Spanish language services overall. We use a difference-in-differences strategy exploiting variation in the timing of the Medicaid expansions across states, and county-level variation in the share of Spanish speaking Latinos across and within states.

Results

We find that treatment facilities that both accepted Medicaid as a form of payment and offered Spanish language services increased by roughly 2–3 per 100, on average, in counties with the highest shares of Spanish speakers compared to counties with low to medium shares. This increase may be explained by more facilities accepting Medicaid as a form of payment.

Conclusion

The Medicaid expansions under the ACA produced a modest increase in the supply of SUD treatment facilities that both accepted Medicaid as payment and provided services in Spanish in areas with highest shares of Spanish speakers.