Behavioral Health Inequities Have Cost the US Health Care System Over $278B

Behavioral health inequities have led to a wave of premature deaths and, in turn, a large cost burden for the U.S. health care system.

In fact, the cost burden of premature behavioral health-related deaths in the Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) community was $278 billion alone between 2016 and 2020. That’s according to a new metadata analysis by the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (SHLI).

The analysis also found that, in that timeframe, the total number of excess premature mental health and behavioral health-related deaths in indigenous populations plus racial and ethnic minority groups was 116,722.

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“Investing in mental healthcare saves lives and dollars — we have known this for decades, but until now did not fully understand the monumental impacts of neglecting to act,” Daniel Dawes, executive director of SHLI, said in a statement. “For the first time, there is tangible evidence demonstrating how decades of systemic health inequities have yielded significantly worse outcomes for racial and ethnic minoritized, marginalized, and under-resourced populations.”

The Black community had 57,887 premature behavioral health-related deaths between 2016 and 2020, which was the highest number of any minority community in the study. In turn, the Black community also accounted for the highest total excess cost burden of premature behavioral health-related deaths at $131.6 billion.

The Hispanic/Latinx population accounted for 46,555 premature behavioral health-related deaths. The excess cost burden attributed to these deaths was $114.5 billion. There were 12,248 premature behavioral health related deaths Indigenious populations, which resulted in a total cost burden of $31.9 billion.

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Researchers from the analysis noted that the sampling frame used by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and federal surveys excludes nearly 6 million Americans who are in prisons, nursing homes, homeless, active military or are in psychiatric institutions.

The cost associated with mental illness and substance use disorder among incarcerated and unhoused individuals is an additional $63 billion to $92 billion, according to researchers.

“Investment in mental and behavioral health infrastructure requires a multi prong approach to expanding and retraining the behavioral health workforce to better meet the behavioral health needs of historically marginalized communities, expansion of insurance coverage and enforcement of parity in both public and private insurance programs, funding and payment reform, and expanding services and care sites for the full continuum of behavioral health services,” the report explained.

Authors of the report called for long-term investments into behavioral health systems that support the advancement of health equity. Additionally, researchers urge for tailored socio-culturally tailored mental health, and addressing social determinants of health.

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