As many of you know, I am very passionate about advocating for mental health as I too, struggle with it. This past year at University of South Carolina I decided to expand on this passion and approach it from a more academic lens. I wrote an academic research paper about the health disparity between access to physical health care and mental health care. Since a long essay isn’t the most enjoyable to read, here are the highlights you need to know and how you can help.
The Main Idea:
Mental health needs to receive equal treatment to physical health in all aspects including costs, availability and access, and getting rid of the stigma.
What Are Some of The Mental Illnesses?
| Type of Mental Illness | Symptoms | Prevelance |
| Anxiety Disorders | Panic attacks, nightmares, nausea, fear of leaving the house, obsessive thoughts | 6.64% of US citizens had anxiety in 2017 |
| Mood Disorders | Depression and bipolar disorder: unhappiness, suicidal, lack of interest in hobbies, low energy, sleep distrubances | 4.84% of US citizens had depression in 2017 |
| Schizophrenia and psychotic disorders | hearing voices, hallucinations, social withdrawl, incoherent speech, abnormal reasoning | 0.33% of US citizens had schizophrenia in 2017 |
| Eating Disorders | Reduction of food intake, overeating, self starvation, concern of weight, body shape, and self image. | 0.51% of US citizens had eating disorders in 2017 |
Statistics from Statista
As you can see, mental illness is a broad term for several different disorders, some of which are less common and are not listed above. Of course, each disorder causes different symptoms and even varies by the person.
How To Get Help:
There is no right way to fix mental illness. However, those who are struggling often go to different types of therapy or take medication to improve their symptoms.
Unfortunately in 2017, “41.5% of Americans could not afford the mental health care services, and 27.7% did not know where they could go to get help” (Elflein 4).
This Financial Crisis Is Because Of The Lack Of Insurance Coverage For Mental Health Services
The History of Mental Health Care
Improvements To The Mental Health Care System
These two programs have been great improvements to the mental health care system, but they have a few shortcomings. For example for the Mental Health Parity Act,
“Many insurance providers offer parity, but sometimes, the quality may differ. They have to provide equal coverage, but sometimes, it’s not necessarily the best coverage. They may cover therapy practices that are low quality or vary widely in quality. Your plan must have great coverage so you can get the mental health diagnosis you deserve.”
Fader
In addition to this, insurances have the ability to limit services by deciding whether or not they are a “medical necessity”. A frequent problem with the Parity Act is that while it does require insurances to make the pricing and requirements comparable to psychical health care, it does not require insurances to provide equal benefits. So, some insurances may offer more mental health care services than others.
For the Affordable Care Act, while the mental health care coverage was greatly expanded in medicare and medicaid, ultimately the option to fund it was left up to the states. This meant that 21 states decided not to fund it. At this point in time, the Affordable Care Act has made large improvements for mental health care but the medicaid mental health care needs to be a nationwide policy in order to maximize coverage.
What Can You Do?
- Get involved in the government! Vote for expanding mental health care coverage. Email or call your representatives in favor of more government regulations on insurances to maintain a standard of health.
- Encourage your state to fund the Affordable Care Act
- Engage in movements that end the stigma of mental health issues
- Share your mental health experience and encourage and welcome others to do the same.
Mental Illness is chronic and essential to our quality of life. It isn’t right that so many Americans have to struggle alone because of the stigma, lack of resources, and high costs. With the help of government regulations, more insurance coverage, and kinder human beings, we can change that. Be the reason that someone can smile today. Vote for expanded mental health coverage.
Works Cited
Elflein, John. “Topic: Mental Health.” Www.Statistica.com, 2019, www.statista.com/ topics/1298/mental-health-issues/.
Fader, Sarah. “Is Therapy Covered by Insurance or Do I Have to Pay?” BetterHelp, BetterHelp, 12 June 2017, www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/is-therapy-covered-by-insurance-or-do-i-have-to-pay/.
Fiorentini, Francesca, director. 5 Ways the U.S. Mental Health Care System Is in Crisis. AJ+, YouTube, Nov. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8zfpUwTrQ
Gold, Jenny. “Affordable Treatment for Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Gets Harder to Find.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Dec. 2019, WP Company, 1 Dec. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/health/affordable-treatment-for-mental-illness-and-substance-abuse-gets-harder-to-find/2019/11/29/a8c689f6-0fce-11ea-bf62-eadd5d11f559_story.html
Olfson, Mark, Melanie Wall, Colleen L. Barry, Christine Mauro, Ramin Mjtabai “Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Private Insurance Coverage and Treatment of Behavioral Health Conditions in Young Adults.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 10, 2018, pp. 1352–1354., doi:10.2105/ajph.2018.304574.
Reeve, Elspeth. “The Conservative Case Against Mental Health.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 29 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/neil-munro-mental-health/314655/.
Saloner, Brendan, and Benjamin Lê Cook. “An ACA Provision Increased Treatment for Young Adults with Possible Mental Illnesses Relative to Comparison Group.” Health Affairs, vol. 33, no. 8, 2014, pp. 1425–1434., doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0214.
“What You Need to Know about Mental Health Coverage.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2019, www.apa.org/helpcenter/parity-guide.
