The Affordable Care Act was instrumental in making insurance providers cover mental illness.
While the health care–reform debate raged over the last eight years, a quiet progressive victory made lives better for millions of people with surprisingly little controversy—the simple idea that mental health should be taken as seriously as physical health. That’s because a broad coalition of advocates ensured that the Affordable Care Act included the concept of “mental health parity”—meaning insurance providers must provide equality in services for mental- and physical-health care.
But now the Trump administration threatens to just as stealthily unravel the modest gains in mental-health equity by shredding the ACA, sinking those millions deeper into silent despair.
The ACA required both private insurance and state-subsidized Medicaid plans to offer mental health and substance-abuse treatment as an essential benefit—a core safeguard for parity. According to Andrew Sperling, legislative director of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), though it is unclear what parts of the ACA might be repealed, if the 20 million people who benefited directly from Obamacare lose coverage, mental-health patients would suffer because “there would be fewer plans out there that would be required to comply” with essential-benefit mandates. Parity for zero is still zero. “Obviously, if you don’t have a health plan, you can’t be in compliance with parity.”
The Affordable care act also forces people to buy insurance under penalty of fine and increases insurance premiums for pretty much everybody else but those on Obamacare. Basically what I’m saying is that it isn’t perfect. Now the republicans are trying to work out their way of providing health care. The biggest problem I see the time in between when the old is gone and the new one comes. Talked with @Rhubot a little bit on it and it is pretty clear the part where they subsidize obamacare is going to go so it will be more expensive for the people on it but less people will have to pay for it in the way of taxes.
Personally I think that there has to be a way to make it so that what doctors charge is less thereby making insurance less relevant. Of course I’ve heard an explanation before that basically said insurance is one of the reasons why it is as expensive as it is. Also everything about the people talking about the new administration is saying that it will be terrible. I think Trump didn’t go into that much detail about what he was going to do so I have no idea if it will be good or bad. Anyway my two cents.
Edit: Although maybe I should contact my senator to not get rid of the portion that covers mental illness.
One of the most popular aspects of the ACA (in fact something that even opponents of the ACA say they want to keep), is that under the ACA, insurers cannot deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
The fundamental dilemna is that, in order to cover less healthy folks (those with pre-existing conditions) while keeping insurance premiums affordable, insurance would have to be required for everyone, including healthy folks. Otherwise, the math just doesn’t work out.
because he has nothing to replace it. period.
He is going to make america great again, for his trump dynasty only, silly fools, not for everyone in america.
I don’t like how a hospital can charge more than the price of a bottle of Tylenol for a single Tylenol. the price ceiling is too high, 10,000% markup is unreasonable. they need price controls on it. or socialized medicine or both.
