Annie Waldman:
Yes, what’s so shocking about what Anna DiNoto experienced is that under the Mental Health Equity and Addiction Equity Act, also known as MHPAEA, it’s a federal law that requires insurance companies to provide equal access to mental and physical health care. .
However, we have heard many stories from patients and providers about how mental health care has been discriminated against and often limited in ways that medical care may not be. You know, for example, if you have cancer and your doctor says you need chemotherapy, the insurance company probably wouldn’t say, well, you can only have that chemotherapy if you try a less aggressive, less intense, less expensive drug first. first and show that it doesn’t work.
But with mental health care, we’ve often heard stories of cuts to care for acute disorders, of someone in the middle of a mental health crisis who needed intensive treatment, and then the insurance company improves coverage for less intensive treatment first.
Such restrictions mean that patients may risk injury or even death by overdose or suicide.