Very good news, indeed!

Experts praise 'historic' mental health, addiction parity rule

The rule guarantees that health plans’ co-payments, limits on visits to providers and deductibles for mental health benefits match those for medical and surgical benefits. It also ensures equal treatment for residential and outpatient care, a long-sought benefit in the mental health community.

The rule could affect 62 million Americans, including about 23 million Americans who meet the criteria for substance abuse disorder, administration officials said.

“For way too long, the health care system has openly discriminated against Americans with behavioral health problems,” Sebelius told reporters on a call after the announcement.

When I first got my job at age 30 and finally enjoyed having health insurance after years of not having it, I finally was able to get help for issues such as bipolar disorder II. But I discovered that my mental health care had co-pays at twice the rate of going to other medical providers. That eventually changed, and I am very glad I have decent behavioural health coverage that has good parity with other medical coverage now. But many people in our country are either not covered for mental health, or have substandard coverage or more costly coverage. It's important that this be more readily available, as you only have to turn on the news to see the consequences of untreated mental illness, such as mass shootings (although actually, mentally ill people are much more likely to be victims of crime than instigators). I'm so glad that this is being put into effect. And treating substance abuse is just as important. This will save lives, hopefully.