News>Health Care Reform and Mental Illness
Health Care Reform and Mental Illness
Information courtesy of Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Benefits of health care reform for people with mental illness:
- Preventing insurance companies from denying you coverage or charging more because of a pre-existing condition, like a mental illness, or dropping and reducing coverage if you become seriously ill.
- Ensuring payment for evidenced-based practices that work.
- Extending Medicaid to households with incomes below at least 133 percent of the federal poverty level.
- Requiring that all plans include mental health and substance use treatment and that this coverage must be at parity (i.e., equal to the coverage of physical health conditions).
- H.R. 3200 would also require all plans to have an essential benefits package that includes rehabilitative and habilitative services (both of which can be very important for individuals with serious mental disorders).
- Establish federal authority to set rules prohibiting discriminatory practices. These insurance reforms would make it easier for people with mental illness to purchase insurance. Establishing authority to set rules to ensure non-discrimination will help protect consumers should health plans try to subvert the nondiscrimination intent of the law.
What we will all get from health reform:
1. A major expansion of Medicaid coverage - fully federally funded - for millions of low-income working families who currently fall through the cracks.
2. A regulated marketplace that clamps down on insurance company abuses so people can no longer be denied coverage.
3. Requirements that insurance companies spend more of the premium dollars they collect on patient care.
4. Sliding-scale subsidies so middle-class, working families can afford the coverage they need to keep their families healthy.
5. A strong public plan option that will provide choice, stability, and an honest yardstick to keep costs down.
6. Limits on out-of-pocket spending, giving Americans real health security and peace of mind.
7. Much-needed relief for small businesses so they can afford to offer coverage to their employees.
8. Improvements to Medicare that will help seniors and people with disabilities afford their drugs and their cost-sharing.
9. Better access to coverage for uninsured children so they can get the care they need.
10. Long overdue steps to modernize the system, improve the quality of care provided, and curb unnecessary spending so our American health care system delivers the best possible care.
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