Beyond the Community Mental Health Service Improvement Act
As demand for mental health and addictions treatment grows, insurance coverage must be preserved and expanded. It's important that we preserve the guarantee of Medicaid coverage for low income, disabled Americans. Commercial parity must be passed; Medicare parity must follow; and if we tend to accept what analysis is teaching us--that addictions are chronic, relapsing conditions that need ongoing monitoring and management, just like diabetes, asthma, and yes like mental sicknesses--then we tend to should act. We have a tendency to should lead the fight to restore eligibility for social security incapacity for individuals with addiction disorders.
Data collected by non-profit organizations documents increased demand and increased numbers of uninsured. States reallocated their general fund mental health bucks to the Medicaid match. And now state plans to hide the uninsured are floundering. This leaves large numbers of individuals with treatable mental illnesses in our overburdened emergency rooms and without access to the services which will have interaction them, treat them, and come them to work.
We tend to're denying our economy productive taxpayers. We have a tendency to're wasting human lives. We have a tendency to must introduce and champion a federal funding stream to hide the mental health and addictions treatment prices of the uninsured.
The Community Mental Health Service Improvement Act begins to deal with our workforce crisis, however it's simply a beginning.
We tend to cannot stand by and watch our best and brightest become plastic surgeons and investment bankers. Skilled workers demands adequate compensation. We must be engaging to leaders that reflect the variety of our communities. And we have a tendency to can't permit people with serious mental illnesses or addictions to attend for weeks and months for a rendezvous with a psychiatrist. We tend to must be clear and forceful advocates for cost primarily based reimbursement that supports salaries that may attract and retain skilled staff.
If we tend to truly want to narrow the gap between science and repair, we have a tendency to must stop investing in manuals and planning grants, and start investing in retooling the organizations that deliver services.
We should preserve, strengthen and expand the mental health and addictions treatment capacity in this country. But it's not been and it can not be easy.
We tend to are part of a healthcare system that reflects the American belief within the marketplace. A healthcare system that talks universal coverage but hates taxes. A healthcare system that resists cost containment, wishing on disease management and prevention for savings, although so so much they show very little proof of delivering savings. A healthcare system that is promoting "medical homes" as the latest value saving strategy, confusing a technique to boost the quality of care with one that saves money.
However we tend to do know something concerning saving money. Pioneering studies are telling us that there are huge disparities in healthcare expenditures from one region of our country to a different, with no difference in healthcare outcomes. If the whole nation could bring its costs down to match the lower spending regions, we tend to would cut 20 to thirty percent off America's healthcare bill. Most of the distinction in spending is for hospital care. Hospitalization, including inpatient psychiatric care, could be a important intervention that has got to be obtainable but in several communities we will do better.
If we tend to're serious concerning improving shopper outcomes, purpose of service is where improvement can occur.
Author Resource:
Charles Gray has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Mental Health, you can also check out latest website about
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")