APA Issues Health Care Reform Priorities for Working with Congress, New Administration

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 -- The American Psychological Association issued the following news release:

The American Psychological Association and its affiliated APA Practice Organization have called on congressional leaders not to repeal the Affordable Care Act without simultaneously replacing it with legislation to ensure that all Americans have insurance coverage with access to comprehensive mental health care at parity with physical health services.

The two organizations also sent President-elect Donald J. Trump their recommendations for ensuring health care reform policies meet the treatment needs of Americans with mental and substance use disorders.

A letter from the organizations (PDF, 71KB) to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky., acknowledged that while the Affordable Care Act could be improved, it has extended insurance coverage to more than 22 million Americans. "Health insurance is a life-or-death issue," the letter stated. "It is not the time to repeal the ACA when more Americans with mental disorders are found in prisons, jails and on the streets than in treatment facilities, and when more Americans are dying of drug overdoses than any other form of accidental death."

In a letter to the incoming Trump administration (PDF, 91KB), the organizations spelled out their recommendations for ensuring health care reform policies meet the treatment needs of Americans with mental and substance use disorders. Before the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, they noted, health plans routinely discriminated against people with mental disorders by structuring and applying policies in ways that made it more difficult to access coverage for mental health care than for general medical care.

"Even today, private sector health plans deny coverage for mental health services twice as often as coverage for general medical care," the letter stated. "As a result, individuals with mental disorders rely heavily on public health programs" such as Medicaid, which accounts for an estimated 29 percent of total U.S. mental health spending. Medicare and other federal programs account for roughly 20 percent more.

Overall, APA and the APA Practice Organization emphasized six core objectives for health care reform:

Establish universal access to essential health care services that include mental health and substance use disorder services at parity with physical health services.

Establish and enforce health insurance protections for consumers and providers.

Integrate mental and behavioral health services into primary-care and other health care services.

Ensure access to preventive services, including mental and behavioral health promotion.

Expand federal investments in the mental health workforce.

Increase federal funding for basic and translational psychological and behavioral research and training.

APA and the APA Practice Organization concluded their letters with an expression of interest in working with the new Congress and the Trump administration on health care and other issues of national importance.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 117,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

[Category: Psychiatry/Psychology]

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