Health Law Addresses Mental Illness Concerns | Health Aim

President Obama?s Affordable Care Act has been celebrated by Americans with mental illness.? The law gives them near-universal health insurance for psychiatric disorders.? Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said, ?This law has the potential to change the course of life for psychiatric patients for the better, and in that sense it is both humane and right.?

According to an authoritative survey conducted in 2005, nearly 50% of Americans will experience a major psychiatric or substance disorder at some point.? Only a fraction of those with mental illness receive treatment due to the stigma surrounding mental illness, poor access to care, and inadequate insurance coverage.? People with mental illness and substance disorders have had to cope with higher deductibles stingy annual and lifetime caps on coverage, or simply no coverage at all.

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 mandated that psychiatric illness be covered the same as other medical illnesses, but the law only applied to employers with 50 or more workers that offered a health plan with mental health and substance abuse benefits.? It had a minimal effect on the disparity between the treatment of psychiatric and non-psychiatric medical diseases since it did not mandate universal psychiatric benefits.

Psychiatric illness is treatable, but it is rarely curable.? Mental disorders are chronic lifelong conditions, characterized by remission and relapse for those who respond to treatment and persistent symptoms for those who do not.? The World Health Organization ranks major depression as the world?s leading cause of disability.? Surveys show that only 50% of Americans with a mood disorder had psychiatric treatment in the past year.

The health care act forbids the exclusion of people with pre-existing illness from medical coverage.? Most adult Americans that have a mental illness are considered to have a pre-existing disorder, because half of all serious psychiatric illnesses are present by 14 years of age and 75% are present by age 25.? Many of these people have been denied medical coverage by most commercial insurance companies.? Allowing young people to remain on their parents? insurance until they turn 26 will also help because, by this age, many psychiatric illnesses have already developed.

Source: http://www.healthaim.com/health-law-addresses-mental-illness-concerns/

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