Republican replacement for Obamacare a ‘disaster’ for Americans with mental illness
After vowing for years to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, Republicans in Congress have revealed the contents of the bill that will repeal President Obama’s landmark healthcare plan and introduce something different.
The early reviews? Well, if you have a treatable mental illness, you may be a loser.
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi outlined the winners and losers in the GOP bill, and said the law overwhelmingly benefits the young, the wealthy — and insurance companies.
Mental health coverage, mandated as an “essential health benefit” under Obamacare, would be killed off under the GOP plan:
That would seem to be the end of mental health parity, putting coverage for mental illnesses into a second tier of, what? Nonessentials?
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has begun campaigning against the bill, which would cap Medicaid funding, which would “lead to deep cuts and jeopardize mental health services. And it will freeze Medicaid expansion, putting young people who are first experiencing serious mental illness at risk.”
“This bill would strip coverage from millions of people and drive up consumer costs,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer health advocacy group. “(The GOP plan) shreds the Medicaid social safety net that serves more than 72 million people, including many children, senior citizens and people with disabilities. And it once again leaves millions of people in America with chronic illness and disease at the mercy of insurance companies.”
I’ve had enough of a fight for mental health coverage with insurance that includes it — I can’t imagine fighting for coverage when the insurance companies aren’t required to cover those “all in your head” issues.
Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, an advocate for parity in coverage for mental health and addiction, has described the Republican bill as a “displacement” bill that would be a “disaster” for all Americans — and in particular the 60 million Americans with substance abuse and mental health disorders:
NPR reports the opposition is gearing up to oppose the bill. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Richard Neal, D-Mass., the ranking Democrats on the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committee issued a joint statement saying the bill would “rip healthcare away from millions of Americans, ration care for working families and put insurance companies back in charge.”
