This matters because Donald Regan was a guy who worked for Ronald Reagan.

>Deinstitutionalization was a bipartisan, national phenomenon driven in large parts by abuse scandals in institutions.

Not just scandals in the sense of individual acts, but changes in thinking about patient rights. For example, eugenic sterilization started as policy more than rogue abuse, and was still going on as late as the 1970s. I think the laws about institutionalizing people against their will were changed.

No doubt saving money was a factor, but lots of factors coincided, largely because people wanted to reform the system as society had changed.

legislature