NEW YORK – Today, Alice Bufkin, Associate Executive Director for Policy & Advocacy at Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, released the following statement on behalf of the Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids in response to New York State’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget:

“Across New York, families find it impossible to access the behavioral health care their children desperately need. As a result, 20 percent of New York’s two to 17 year old children experience one or more behavioral health needs. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among children age five to 19 years old. More than 50 percent of New York’s children that experienced a major depressive episode last year went without critically needed access to care – even as Medicaid or commercial insurance coverage is near universal across the state.

The Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids applauds the Adopted Budget’s inclusion of  requirements that commercial insurance plans must reimburse Article 31 and 32 licensed in-network outpatient behavioral health services at the same level as Medicaid APG rates.

The budget also includes a human services COLA, and while it falls far short of the full amount needed, we urge state leaders to ensure a smooth and expeditious implementation of the two-track COLA and salary adjustment.

However, this budget fails to make urgently needed investments in the outpatient behavioral health system. The acute behavioral health crisis New York’s children and their families face requires bolder action from leadership to reform a health care system that continues to fail our children. Moving forward, State leaders have a historic opportunity to leverage the MCO tax included in the Adopted Budget to ensure new federal revenue generated is invested in children’s outpatient behavioral health services, including:

• $117 million to adjust children’s clinics rates for Article 31 and 31 clinics to reflect the complex needs of children;
• $44 million to address CFTSS and HCBS reimbursement rates and expand service capacity;
• $20 million to reimburse for care coordination performed by clinic and HCBS and CFTSS providers;
• $14 million and a continued commitment to annualize cost of living increases of established rates.

We cannot stress enough that families continue to face unacceptable circumstances when seeking needed behavioral health care for their children and this crisis requires immediate, bold solutions. We must invest in the children’s outpatient behavioral health continuum to dramatically improve service access and capacity and to ensure New York’s children thrive.

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About The Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids

The Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids is a statewide coalition of behavioral health providers, advocates, and New York families, joining together to create the public and political will necessary to ensure all children and adolescents in New York receive the high-quality behavioral health services they need.