Allan Appel Photo
DeLauro with Daniella Giordano, policy director for the state chapter of National Association on Mental Illness.
Obamacare is poised to help the mental-health business — assuming some promises are carried out.
That was the upshot of a press conference held Tuesday afternoon at the Connecticut Mental Health Center on Park Street.
The press conference’s purpose: to hail the increased access to mental health services under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare); to call attention to the next enrollment period, which begins Nov. 15; and to stress that advocates now need to monitor insurance companies to make sure they fulfill promises of increased coverage.
During the first enrollment period, October 2013 through August 2014, the number of Medicaid enrollees through the ACA grew from 93,000 to 163,000 statewide, reported Professor of Psychiatry and CMHC CEO Michael Sernyak.
“That’s 20,000 more than projected,” he added.
The ACA now requires that all health plans, in addition to Medicaid, cover preventive services like depression screening and behavioral assessments at no cost and insurers can no longer deny coverage calling mental health a pre-existing condition or charge higher premiums to individuals with mental illness.
DeLauro hailed the achievement as a big step to helping make mental health “no longer a shameful secret” or stigma.
“Mental health problems are as real as diabetes, and the leading cause of disability,” she said.
An important first step — and just a step. The jury remains out on how thoroughly the providers and the insurance companies will be treating mental health on what DeLauro described as “parity” — on the same level as physical health, according to the spirit of the ACA.
DeLauro with Smith, who works as a cook in the CMHC cafeteria.
Sernyak (pictured) called it unlikely that some services that CMHC has provided over the years to patients like Spruill and her friend Edward Smith — leading peer groups, leadership training, and vocational opportunities within the center — will be supported under the new plans.
At least not yet.
He called attention to $8 million set aside within the ACA for pilot projects that might first have to be more widely proven in effectiveness before they are rolled out and more broadly accepted.
DeLauro, who is the senior Democrat on the House subcommittee responsible for funding health care, pointed to cautionary parallel developments: While the ACA has been an important step forward, “$358 million has been cut between 2009 and 2012 in [federal] mental health funding.”
“That has forced the states to reduce or eliminate services. My hope is that ACA will fill that gap. It’s too soon to tell,” she said.
“We’re still still looking that this effort [the ACA’s initiatives on mental health] works. We’re monitoring and following what is actively happening. It’s our responsibility to ask the entities to collect the data to understand what’s working well. We’ve got to make sure it’s all working.”