Prior studies have found that poor mental health during pregnancy is associated with poor birth outcomes, but little is known about the ability of mental health care access and treatment to counteract these effects. I use a difference‐in‐differences strategy exploiting the staggered enactment of state mental health parity laws in 25 states from 1995 to 2002 to identify the impact of mental health care access on the probability of an adverse birth outcome. These state mental health parity laws are insurance mandates requiring coverage of mental health care be equivalent to physical health care. Using birth records, I find that, among the group of mothers most likely to have private insurance, introduction of a mental health parity law in a state decreased the probability of an adverse birth outcome. Furthermore, I find that the parity laws decreased the likelihood that a pregnant woman hospitalized for delivery would receive a mental illness diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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心理健康平等法对生育结果的影响

先前的研究发现，怀孕期间心理健康状况不佳与生育结果不佳有关，但人们对心理保健服务和治疗抵消这些影响的能力知之甚少。我利用 25 个州从 1995 年到 2002 年交错颁布的州精神健康平等法，使用了差异中的差异策略来确定精神卫生保健可及性对不利出生结果概率的影响。这些州精神健康平等法是保险要求，要求精神卫生保健的承保范围等同于身体卫生保健。使用出生记录，我发现，在最有可能拥有私人保险的一组母亲中，在一个州引入心理健康平等法降低了不利出生结果的可能性。此外，