What addiction treatment services are covered by Medicaid?
Medicaid is a federal-state partnership that provided health care services to 48.9 million low-income Americans in 2002 for treatment of health problems, including substance use disorders. Since expenditures are matched by the federal government, states have substantial flexibility to craft their Medicaid plans. Medicaid spending on substance use disorders rose rapidly at an inflation-adjusted rate of 9.8 percent yearly between 1987 and 1992, although this rate still was slower than the 11.8 percent annual increase in overall Medicaid spending during that period. In the second five-year period, Medicaid programs slowed the rate of increase of spending on substance use treatment to an annual 5.7 percent increase between 1992 and 1997. Federal Medicaid guidelines require a core of basic services, including hospital inpatient and outpatient care; early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental illnesses for individuals under age 21; rural health clinic service
