Notwithstanding federal law requiring “mental health parity”–insurance coverage for mental conditions–mental health treatment remains hard to come by in the US. Even with health insurance, the majority of Americans in need of treatment for a mental health condition could not get it in 2021. If you have Medicare, few health care providers are willing to treat you because Medicare’s rates are so low, and the data suggest that Medicare Advantage plans do a poor job of including mental health providers in their networks.
About one in five people in the US have a mental health condition. But, only a small minority of them are able to get treatment for their conditions. Fewer than one in seven people with Medicare–15 percent–receive treatment for mental health conditions.
A story on NPR, based on a new Milliman report, explains that about two in three Americans with health insurance could not receive treatment for their mental health conditions. Of the people experiencing mental health crises who required emergency treatment or hospitalization, only one in three got follow-up treatment within 30 days of leaving the hospital.
Inseparable, an advocacy group focussed on the treatment of mental health conditions, commissioned the Milliman report. Its founder, Bill Smith, wanted to see the data underlying the endless stories his group was hearing about insurance companies refusing to cover mental health care.
What keeps people from getting treatment for mental health conditions? In addition to a health insurance industry that does not want to cover the care, there’s a shortage of workers, poor provider reimbursement rates, and government failure to ensure compliance by insurance companies to cover mental health care as required under federal law.
Milliman’s findings show that almost one in four people with insurance, including Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance, had a minimum of one mental health condition in 2021. People with Medicaid had the highest likelihood of receiving mental health care.
Here’s more from Just Care:
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