Supply of Mental Health Insurance Coverage

Introduction

Affordable medical care provisions offers the best services for mental health, this is after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. The act requires that all individuals and employers subscribe to the insurance benefit plan. Purity in mental health acts like a rectifier of unfairness in the health insurance. However due to the increasing mental problems the total spending has increased, based on results from the health insurance companies (Schroeder, 2012). Another evidence has suggested and found it prudent that there is need to manage the costs incurred, to give alternatives on discriminative coverage.

The paper is going to review on mental health cost effectiveness.

According to previous views, there has been a big disparity on the general health insurance and the mental health insurance (Shin, 2014). Due to this, there was developed parity in the main objective, parity states that insurance is not supposed to discriminate against people with mental problems. It is therefore important to note that the parity argument was to deal with general cost, and reduce the level of spending in the mental health sector (Shin, 2014). However, it was found that a managed insurance care changed the efficiency and methods of rationing mental health care. Despite all the changes that have taken place, experts suggest that the improved health service will yield few benefits compared to the cost some describe this reform's act as a hidden tax, and a wrongly advised way of providing medical care.

In general the article tries to analyze the changes made in the health insurance on mental problems, and a plan to try to reduce the cost of the condition. The changes introduced however did not make great success, because on the contrary it generated large cost increases (Barry, Huskamp & Goldman, 2010).Mental healthcare is one very important care that should not be avoided just because of lack of finances to cater for the costs incurred, This is because there is a mental coverage program (Schroeder, 2012). The mental health cover and the affordable care act are the basic milestones towards the problem of the higher costs experienced before. However the health coverage program is not always as comprehensive as many could have thought, this is because some health arrangements are still exempt from providing the mental health program (Lang, 2011).

The affordable health program requires that all insurance plans that are dealing with health issues that are sold to cover the mental plan as an essential benefit, the other related fields that are included is the substance abuse treatment, behavioral therapy and inpatient care for mentally ill patients. In the journal the insurance cover was brought into place to cover and subsidize the cost of the services, this was initially high and almost unaffordable, making it to be termed discriminative (Barry, Huskamp & Goldman, 2010). The introduction of the health bill has brought about reforms in the health sector and the beneficiary group is the mentally challenged and drug addicts. Insurance companies have been covering the treatment of the mental health condition in a different manner from what they have been doing to patients with physical health issues.

Realizing mental health care have great rates allocation system, more preventive bounds on the numbers of outpatient and impatient calls allowable, lifetimes caps as well as separate annual coverage are provided. Distinguished prior authorization is needed more than the actual coverage rules where they are being made mental health benefits which is substantial lesser benefits for a physical health condition (Schroeder, 2012). The process of equalizing the rights for mental health treatment with other health issues started long ago, in 1996, in the Congress of the United States where it passed a bill on Mental Health Parity Act.

This Act was standing for a big group sponsored by the employee health strategies and prevented them from imposing greater financial limits on mental health benefits that the surgical patient's benefits. Rules are applicable for health group policies and self-insured group's healthiness plan. MHPA is not entitled to make sure that mental health benefit plan has been having been provided to the health group (Lang, 2011). Following the passing of this MHPA by the Congress, many countries have passed their mental parity laws. Affordable care act is implied with MHPA to the insurance company in a qualified health plan and individual market plan. ACA covers the main mental health and the drug use treatment of ten essential health benefits.

This resulted to insurance all individual and small-scale business people within or outside the marketplaces (Schroeder, 2012). The Act was very important for it increases access to mental health and substance abuse care (Lang, 2011). This Act helps in eliminating mental health stigmatization and increase the availability of high-quality insurer through determining equivalence of services. Mental health insurance is required to be equalized by another insurance cover plummeting disintegration of the health care delivery system.

This usually happens due to the division of the America in mental health issue where psychological curves-out are provided to substance use mental and health welfares. In mental health medical care there are many professionals who play different roles to provide care for the mental patients (Lang, 2011). The setting can also include non-professionals but trained and licensed as a substitute to the professionals. The distribution of workers in a mental hospital suggests an overlap their roles and functions by a system called "role diffusion." In a platform where practitioners are providing the roles almost the same to another individual can be inefficient, divisive, and unstable (Schroeder, 2012).

The Affordable Care Act is the greatest expansion in mental health and drug use condition covered in a given period. This is done by providing small employer and individuals with an insurance plan including all plans given in a health insurance Market plan cover for a mental health and substance service. Affordable Care Act also cover for rehabilitation and habilitation services which support individuals with behavioral health challenges (Schroeder, 2012). MHPAEA was built in 2008 by the two insurance cover where they expanded the mental health and substance use problem will benefit from the federal parity protection. Most mental health plans cover defensive facilities which can lead to mental problems such as downheartedness to adult and social valuation for children. Since the year 2014, any health cover can care for your drug use addiction and mental health. Medical alternative benefits plans also cover mental health insurance (Schroeder, 2012).

The introduction of the mental health insurance policies has been received with mixed reactions. Many proponents argue that the reforms in the health bill are appropriate and timely changes that were brought to the health sector. This is because the health concerns of the mentally challenged most of them who were poor , has been put into considerations (Lang, 2011). Other research findings argued that the future supply and demand of the health care services might be hampered due to the rise in the general population that shall proportionately affect the number of the mentally ill.

In other findings, the health bill has been criticized on grounds of managing health services and rationing the mental health services to the ill, making it hardly available (Barry, Huskamp & Goldman, 2010). Most health insurance plans cover the mental health care. Any insurance cover which provides insurance cover also covers health insurance care. A person who is covered by an insurance cover has equal right with any other patient who is covered by the same insurance coverage.

The government of the United States has first implemented the Act but it has been amended to accommodate all the mental health issues and substance abuse. The government supports those who have no health insurance coverage to afford one which can be used to protect the patient in time of mental health problem.Affordable Care Act covers for rehabilitation of the mental health patient. This means that an individual can be protected by the health insurance coverage to recover and to heal the disease. The health insurance plan can also cover for major causes of the mental problem.

References

BARRY, C., HUSKAMP, H. & GOLDMAN, H. (2010). A Political History of Federal Mental Health and Addiction Insurance Parity.

Milbank Quarterly, 88(3), 404-433.Lang, M. (2011). THE IMPACT OF MENTAL HEALTH INSURANCE LAWS ON STATE SUICIDE RATES. Health Economics, 22(1), 73-88.

Schroeder, R. (2012). The Seriously Mentally Ill Older Adult: Perceptions of the Patient-Provider Relationship. Perspectives In Psychiatric Care,? 49(1), 30-40.

Shin, K. (2014). A Study on the Legal Issues and Challenges of Insurance Discrimination Against the Mentally Ill. Journal Of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, 53(2), 61.

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