Biden's Mental Health Policy - Do You Support It?

“Mental health is health, period. It should be treated that way by our insurers and our culture.”

• President-elect Joe Biden gave the above statement earlier this year to Mental Health for US, a nonpartisan, educational coalition working to elevate mental health and addiction in national policy conversations.

The State of the ACA

• The Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – prevents insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, including mental-health ailments like depression or anxiety.  
• Since Biden’s last days as vice president in 2016, roughly 1.4 million people have become uninsured, partly through the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to repeal the ACA.
• Once inaugurated, Biden could use his executive authority to implement immediate operational changes to expand access to the ACA and begin to reverse the current president’s “death by a thousand cuts” attack on the law.

Biden’s Public Option

• Biden had promised to build on the ACA. In a bold proposal to extend coverage to more than 97% of Americans, Biden will offer a public option for everyone to buy into if their private health insurance isn’t working out for them.
• If this public option is like Medicare, it would cover outpatient services like counseling, individual therapy, or psychiatric evaluations.
• Additionally, this public option will have the power to negotiate “lower prices from hospitals and other health care providers” as well as “cover primary care without any co-payments.”

Mental Health Coverage

• The president-elect has called for investing heavily in training and hiring more mental health professionals, including doubling the number of psychologists, counselors and other mental health professionals in schools.
• Biden called for expanding and strengthening veterans’ mental health programs inside and outside the Veterans Health Administration.
• Biden has also called for programs to reduce suicide rates among LGBTQ teens.

Personal History

• The president-elect’s son, Hunter Biden, has a personal history of substance abuse and addiction and it should not be a surprise that Hunter’s dad has a strong plan to address the opioid crisis and shift the conversation around substance abuse.
• This includes increasing access to recovery treatment, curbing unnecessary opioid prescriptions, holding pharma companies accountable, and exploring incarceration alternatives for those with mental-health disorders.
• Mental health only seems like it will grow in importance during the next presidency, which comes on the heels of a global pandemic which has killed over two hundred thousand Americans, left many more without jobs, and where one in five COVID-19 patients are also diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days.

—Andra Moldav