The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and Affordable Care Act of 2010 changed the policy landscape once again by requiring that insurance agencies subsidize AUD treatment as well as offer prevention, screening, and other services (HHS, 2016). Younger individuals in generation X and most millennials seeking services for alcohol problems have likely benefitted from these changes. Prior to 2010, approximately 30% of younger generation X and older millennials (those aged 19–25 in the 2000s) lacked insurance coverage, a number that decreased to 25% only two years after enactment of the ACA (McClellan, 2015). Millennials specifically were able to benefit from being able to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. Also following enactment of the ACA, there was an increase in millennials seeking mental health services, although substance-use-specific service use did not change (McClellan, 2015). These changes may explain the current findings that the mean age of service use was lower in millennials and that they also were more likely than baby boomers to seek help if they were less than 5 years
