Defining the Addiction Treatment Gap: Data Summary

The March 2010 passage of health care reform means that millions of Americans will have insurance coverage for addiction treatment as part of their basic benefit package. This represents a major step forward in making addiction treatment part of a comprehensive approach to integrated health care.

Federal and state regulators are now tasked with translating and implementing that vision by defining what will be included in the addiction treatment benefit for both public and private insurance. For the promise of this historic opportunity to be realized, a meaningful addiction treatment benefit will include a full continuum of effective, integrated treatment practices.

This summary of data related to drug and alcohol addiction and treatment is designed to provide a statistical context for efforts to close America’s addiction treatment gap, including the design of an addiction treatment benefit as part of health care reform implementation.  

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