Affordable Care Act and Mental Health – Phily.com/Health reports.

I read an interesting article this evening which was published on the Phily.com website under their Health section.

Whilst I personally find some of the terminology used both distressing and offensive – such as the opening three words of “Mentally Ill people”  (Let’s face it this is 2012 and one would hope that we have at least got to a point were we could be seen as ‘people who experience mental illnesses/poor mental health’ rather than labelling us as ‘mentally ill people’) this article will I think is a good article and will be of some interest to our American  members.
The article states that..

Mentally ill people will have a much easier time accessing care two years from now, thanks to the new federal health care law. But advocates worry that current budget cuts may create a shortage of the very mental health services the newly insured will want to use. ¹

And goes on to state that…

In 2008, 67,560 uninsured people in Pennsylvania did not get mental health care because they could not afford the services, according to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.¹

And that…

That number should drop dramatically by 2014, when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires all American citizens to have health coverage that will include mental health services.¹

The full article containing the above quotes can be found here and is in my opinion well worth the read.

All credit goes to Philly.com and the author of this article whom I think is part of the Inquirer staff and is — Allyn Gaestel and no copyright infringement is intended through the publishing of this announcement.