Both physical and mental health characterizes the well-being of human beings. However, today’s treatment, as well as the significant mental health models, fail to conveniently address mental illness challenges, which causes about 33% of adult disability in the world. Health maintenance organizations (HMO) should hence improve the insurance of mental illnesses to ensure that mental and physical treatment receive the same attention. Improving mental health insurance is vital due to a large number of mental illnesses in the US.
In 2008, congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which held that mental health illnesses and physical problems received equal attention. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act was passed and required individual and small-group health plans sold to marketplace insurances to cover health illnesses on comparable levels with medical provisions (Dangor, 2019). Parity rules were also enacted in 2016 by congress to provide low-income citizens with managed Medicaid plans since it covers most of the federal-state health sectors. Enacting the rules has been partially successful since insurers cannot charger higher deductibles or copays for mental health or set maximum times they can cover such health problems. However, many organizations continue to put physical health above mental health when granting their workforce insurances.
Mental health problem is a pandemic in the current century, with about 350 million people undergoing depression every year. It takes averagely ten years to treat a mental health patient after depression mood symptoms, and only less than a third receives treatment. Depression mood causes enormous occupational, social, and psychological costs and is the main disability cause in the US for citizens aged 15-45 years. The mental problem causes an estimated $31 billion loss in productivity annually (Lake, 2017). The US citizens have limited access to mental healthcare will fewer resources being allocated to the sector, and preference is given to physical health. Mental health problems are the leading disability cause globally, and hence HMOs should embrace better insurance policies to ensure that more substantial population access to mental health care.
The psychologists should be paid better to ensure better and quality health mental check-ups. The payment for psychologists has, however, declined by about 36% from 2007 after inflation adjustment. Mental health physicians should receive payments comparable with their fellow doctors to ensure efficacy and effectiveness. A third of the adult population has a mental health problem and hence requires dedicated and motivated psychologists to deal with the ever-growing number.
In the US, more than 4.7 million adults have mental illnesses and are uninsured about it. The Affordable Care Act is, however, reducing the number and has recorded a gradual reduction in uninsured adults in the US. About 57.2% of adults living with mental health disorders in the US receive no treatment, which adds up to about 26 million individuals. Citizens are searching for mental health treatment face barriers such as limited or lack of insurance covers, lack of various treatment methods, a shortfall in mental health workers, as well as inadequate funds to cover costs. The barriers make it difficult for adults in the US to get mental health treatment causing a loss in production and even deaths from attempted suicides. Lack of mental health treatment causes about 10-20 million attempted suicides in the US, with nearly 1 million attempts being successful.
Milliman, an actuarial firm, released a report in 2017 that revealed that a visit to a therapist likely to be out-of-network at least five times, hence more expensive compared to primary care engagement. About 8 million infants in the US experience attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, or depression, but only about half receive treatment (Dangor, 2019).
The provision of mental health care in the US is thus crucial in ensuring a healthy population. Lack of treatment causes loss in production, which is reflected in the loss in cash as well as deaths through suicides. Improvement of the insurance of mental healthcare to the level similar to physical health would ensure that more people access psychologists as well as other mental health workers. Higher disbursement of funds by the government would boost the sector to ensure more mental health workers and cheaper insurance policies.
Health maintenance organizations should expand their services to accommodate people accessing mental health counseling services. A third of the adult population suffers from mental health problems causing less productivity and even deaths. Treatment of mental health patients will require the expansion of the HMO due to their massive numbers.
References
Dangor, G. (2019). NPR Choice page. Npr.org. Retrieved 1 May 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/07/730404539/mental-health-parity-is-still-an-elusive-goal-in-u-s-insurance-coverage.
Lake, J. (2017). Urgent Need for Improved Mental Health Care and a More Collaborative Model of Care. The Permanente Journal. https://doi.org/10.7812/tpp/17-024