The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act: How it will Change Health Insurance

Individuals who suffer from mental illness have been subjected to stigmatization and discrimination throughout human history. Not only did these individuals have to put up with social discrimination, they had to deal with financial discrimination as well. Until recently, health care laws made it possible for health insurance companies to cover mental illness to a lesser extent than physical diseases, which forced individuals dealing with mental health issues into paying more money out of pocket (Kennedy, 2004).

Mental Illness sufferers often have to deal with stigmatization

Recently, the Obama administration passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAE) which will be implemented in the Affordable Care Act. The MHPAE will enforce regulations on insurance companies that require more equity in their mental health care policies. In other words, the maximum amount of mental health coverage can be no less than the maximum amount of physical health coverage in any given year (Wolf, 2013). This means that mental illness sufferers will not have to pay as many out of pocket expenses for the therapies they need.  Although, this is a great advancement in health care, it is just a step in the right direction at best. There are still many things that need to be addressed.

                                                                                                     

Trying to find the right medication to treat mental illness can be costly.

The movement of making mental health coverage equal to physical health coverage is definitely better than how it was in the past, however, it is not ideal (Brauser, 2013). There are some holes in the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity act. For example, the MHPAE currently does not apply to medicaid.  According to Brauser (2013), "medicaid is the largest insurer for people with mental health problems."  What good is the act if it doesn't benefit the majority of people with mental health problems?  Although, there is talk about Medicaid being included in the MHPAE in the future (Brauser, 2013).  Another hole in the MHPAE is the fact that mental illness and physical illness are very different from each other.  Providing the same type of coverage to two different types of illnesses seems less than ideal.  Unlike most physical illnesses, a mental illness typically lasts a lifetime.  Chronic physical illnesses generally present themselves in older individuals, whereas chronic mental illnesses tend to surface in adolescence and young adulthood.  Because mental illnesses present in early adulthood, quality healthcare coverage is often prevented because the mental disability makes it difficult to get a job that provides adequate health insurance.  Another difference is that treatments for mental illnesses vary from person to person and often require experimentation with different combinations and dosages of medications in order to find a treatment that works. This can exhaust the maximum amount of coverage one can have in a given year rather quickly.  On the other hand, treatments of physical illnesses are usually consistent from person to person and are supported by extensive research, which translates to cheaper medical treatments  After looking at how these two types of illnesses differ from each other, it is clear that simply adding parity between the two types of health care coverage does not suffice.