World Mental Health Day is Thursday, Oct. 10, and it’s an important opportunity to raise awareness about this major public health issue. NAMI Maine reports one in five adults experiences a mental health condition in a given year. Last month, the Biden administration announced updates to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act – new regulations to strengthen protections for mental health care coverage. This is one step in the right direction, designed to prompt more insurers to cover mental health treatment. We hope it means more people will get the care that they need.
But there is still so much work to be done. Nearly half of the 60 million adults and children living with mental health conditions in the United States go without any treatment. And finding care and affording it are still the most common barriers to obtaining treatment, according to a Gallup poll published in May. In Maine in 2022, nearly 34,000 people were not able to access mental health services because of cost, according to Mental Health America. The daunting obstacles of deductibles, copays and the high cost of paying out of pocket for out-of-network care are too insurmountable for too many.
The inextricable link between physical and mental health has been well established. We know that when left untreated, mental illness has a wave of long-term consequences on quality of life, physical health, productivity, employment, relationships with friends and loved ones, and so many other dimensions of life.
At Taro Health, we feel a responsibility to do what we can to help close the mental health care gap.
We hear a steady drumbeat of feedback from the mental health practitioners in our network about how essential this coverage has been for so many people. Having access to mental health support without the stress of worrying about its financial toll is, in many ways, priceless. When people feel like they have the time and ability to get whatever treatment they need – without worrying about the number of sessions that are covered – it changes the trajectory of their treatment.
Employers should be invested in the mental health care support options they’re providing their employees, too. A report by Gallup in 2022 found that employees with inadequate mental health miss four times more work than others, and more than half of U.S. workers don’t have easily accessible mental health support services. Workers with fair or poor mental health are estimated to have nearly 12 days of unplanned absences in a 12-month period, compared with just 2.5 days for all other workers. That results in about $47.6 billion annually in lost productivity across the U.S. workforce. If employers are proactive by providing their employees with better coverage for mental health care, they may likely end up saving money in the long run.
Jeff Yuan and Frank Wu are founders of Taro Health, which offers health insurance plans through the ACA Health Insurance Marketplace throughout Cumberland, Sagadahoc, York and Lincoln counties.
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