Better Mental Health Care Is Worth the Expense
June 21, 2016 8:35 AM EDT
By Editorial Board
When more than half of people who need mental health care can’t or don’t get it -- as is true in the U.S. -- other problems arise. For sufferers, these include physical illness, lost earnings, substance abuse and suicide. For society, there is greater crime and homelessness.
So legislation in the House of Representatives meant to expand mental health care is welcome. The bill, which could soon get a vote, would give mental health issues more weight within the Department of Health and Human Services and improve tracking of wait times for psychiatric beds. It would also provide small grants for suicide prevention, for educating new psychologists, and for training police to better engage with the mentally ill.
And it would remove various restraints on mental health care -- for instance, an anti-fraud restriction that prevents Medicaid from paying for two services at the same location on the same day. This rule has kept many people from getting treatment for depression as part of a regular checkup.
Yet mental health services in the U.S. are so inadequate that these changes would still leave many Americans without the care they need.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-21/better-mental-health-care-is-worth-the-expense
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