[NYAPRS Enews] Vast Majority of Americans Unaware of Improvements in Mental Health Coverage

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Vast Majority of Americans Unaware of Improvements in Mental Health
Coverage

by Donna Vaillancourt
<http://www.jointogether.org/blog/contributors/vaillancourt.html>   Join
Together  February 9, 2011

 

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which went into
effect in Jan. 2011, mandates that insurance companies provide the same
coverage for mental health services as they do for physical health
services.

Yet, according to a Dec. 2010 American Psychological Association (APA)
survey, only 10 percent of Americans have even heard of the law, 29
percent don't know whether their existing mental-health benefits are
adequate, and 45 percent don't know whether their insurance companies
reimburse them for such services.

The APA survey, which included responses from nearly 3,000 US adults,
was conducted online in December 2010 by Harris Interactive. The APA
made the results public in a Jan. 24press release
<http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/01/law-mental-health.aspx>
.

It's not unusual for changes in legislative policy to fall under the
radar for many Americans. But these results are unsettling in a country
where, according to the National Institute of Mental Health
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml> , a full quarter of the population
has a diagnosable mental health problem, and only 33 percent of them
receive treatment. Worse, two-thirds of those who do seek help do not
receive adequate care.

"The implementation of mental health parity is a great milestone in
recognizing that mental health care is just as crucial to a healthy life
as prevention and treatment of physical ailments," said Katherine
Nordal, Ph.D., the APA's executive director for professional practice.
"But laws alone have clearly not been enough to put parity into full
use. Our survey shows that too few Americans are aware of these new
rights."

Under the law, insurance carriers must extend behavioral health benefits
to the 82 million Americans whose states don't mandate such coverage,
and they can no longer charge higher copays and deductibles for mental
health services than they do for physical health services. In addition,
they can no longer impose a cap on outpatient mental-health visits,
since no such limits apply for visits related to physical health.

In the end, the news from the survey wasn't all bad. Since 56 percent of
respondents gave cost as a primary reason they did not seek help for
mental health problems, the vast majority supported the changes under
the new law.

"We need to communicate more effectively with employers and potential
consumers of mental health services so that parity can be fully
implemented and people can more easily obtain the services they need,"
concluded Nardal.

The full report, "Your Mental Health A Survey of Americans'
Understanding of the Mental Health Parity Law
<http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/parity-law.pdf> ," (PDF) is
available online.

 

http://www.jointogether.org/blog/posts/2011/vast-majority-of-americans.h
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