One has to wonder with the recent state of affairs in our political environment where does MHSA coverage stand in all this. As we all watch closely to determine whether all the advances that we have made over the years will all be rolled back to the 1980’s time warp where Mental Health and Substance Abuse were taboo and not always covered under Group benefits forget the individual policies who most times did not even offer this coverage?

So where are we now? Well according to my estimation, if it does not pass the senate then we are still where we have been since 2009.  For those of you who follow this Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act were enacted in 2008.  Teddy Kennedy sponsored this.   This provides for equal treatment of these services in all group health plans with more than 50 employees.  When ACA was implemented, this language was adopted for individual policies as well.    It also mandated that the minimum requirements for an insurance policy must include coverage for MHSA.  Now we are in jeopardy of losing this last part.

So if I am reading the score card correctly individual policies that are purchased can leave out MHSA coverage and we are back to the 1980’s where folks do not even know they do not have the coverage and the insurance companies are telling us the insured opted not to have that coverage.   The average citizen is purchasing an insurance policy based on premiums.  Some are well informed enough to understand all the implications of the benefits but most do not.    Therefore, to that end folks the future is just waiting and see because you can neither predict or determine what is going to be.

We could go on but the other part of this is those folks that want Medicare for All.  We could discuss this all day and I am still not sure what the best outcome will be.