After state lawmakers made budget cuts last year, 13,000 seriously mentally ill Arizonans lost most of their health benefits. Now a report from the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers shows that the cuts actually increased costs for taxpayers.
Council president Emily Jenkins says that without regular case management and medication, people with serious mental illnesses are showing up in emergency rooms, hospitals and jails.
Jenkins gave Public News Service an example of one woman who had been stable for years but who became highly unstable when she lost access to her public health provider last year. Taxpayers have spent more than $100,000 from her repeated hospitalizations and involvement with the police. Jenkins says before the budget cuts, the average cost for treating a mentally ill person was $7,000 a year.
Click here for the report.
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