Healthcare Reform: Remember the Mind
Dr. Howard F. Bracco, Ph.D.
For people suffering a mental illness or battling an addiction, the lack of comprehensive insurance coverage for both physical and behavioral health services greatly impacts their overall health and well-being. In our region, the lack of coverage creates a barrier between the person in need and those who can assist.
With a tattered safety net of care for a select few who are unfortunate enough to be both poor and ill enough to make a priority list, the remaining population of those with no or inadequate coverage often go without any treatment at all.
As the President and CEO of Seven Counties Services, Inc., the region’s largest provider of behavioral health services, I urge our Congress to accelerate and focus their national healthcare reform efforts to address concerns over unmet needs for services and the rising number of uninsured. Further, whatever new products or systems evolve, I ask that they make certain to include mental health and addiction services in all components of healthcare reform – and to do so in both the intent and spirit of the groundbreaking parity law they passed last year.
Healthcare reform is about the almost 50 million Americans in Kentucky and nationwide living without coverage. It is also about people who have health insurance with very limited benefits or those who have coverage but can no longer afford rising out-of-pocket costs. Ultimately, however, the debate should transcend insurance issues – it should be a national discussion about how we, as a nation, can insure that all of us have an equal opportunity to attain our best possible state of health.
Guaranteeing basic healthcare for all people is a moral imperative. It is a matter of justice – both social and economic. Our founding fathers recognized life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable rights. These rights cannot be exercised in the absence of health. Consequently, access to healthcare must be understood as a basic right on par with public education.
This means we must go beyond access – we must make healthcare attainable for all. Healthcare premiums have been rising six times faster than wages since 2000. Even with access to insurance, many workers simply can’t afford it. Choosing between rent, food and health insurance is not a decision any one of us should have to make.
The current recession is compounding this inequity. More people are losing their health insurance along with their jobs, particularly in states like Kentucky, where the unemployment rate has climbed to more than ten percent.
Nationwide, the economic, social and human costs of mental health and addictions disorders are staggering:
• Mental illness drains our economy of more than $80 billion every year, accounting for 15 percent of the total economic burden of all disease.
• Alcohol and drug abuse contributes to the death of more than 100,000 Americans and costs upwards of half a trillion dollars a year.
• A quarter of all Social Security disability payments are for individuals with mental illness.
For persons with mental illnesses or addictions, the consequences of the lack of comprehensive coverage and treatment are dire. A national study conducted in 2006, found that people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder die an average of 25 years sooner than other Americans. Three out of every five people with serious mental illnesses die from preventable, co-occurring chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and cardiopulmonary conditions.
The goal of healthcare reform should be to ensure access for all Americans to quality, affordable health care. Quality healthcare means that coverage must include mental health and substance use disorders in all parts of healthcare reform. Let us realize our potential. Let us exercise our inalienable rights.
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