Despite laws that say mental health care should be paid for on a par with other medical care, health insurance stopped covering the care a suicidal teen needed before she was stable.
Tuesday on Political Rewind: In their last session, Georgia legislators passed a bipartisan bill to improve access to mental health services. This past week saw further progress with the launch of the 988 phone line, an emergency mental health crisis line, part of a new national network.
Mental health advocates applaud the proposals, which they say offer much-needed federal leadership on a growing national crisis. But they worry about getting sustainable funding for the efforts.
Lawmakers in Georgia are expected to introduce an omnibus mental health bill at the steps of the Capitol at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. House Speaker David Ralston will announce the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Todd Jones and Democratic Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver.
Parity in health care means substance misuse treatment and heart defects should be treated the same way by insurance companies. A federal parity law passed in 2008, but there is no mechanism to ensure parity is enforced in Georgia. A plan presented Nov. 10 at the state Capitol seeks to change that.
The pandemic has made people more open to seeking help, a new survey finds, but cost and difficulty in finding a mental health care provider are still big obstacles.
A bipartisan group of Georgia lawmakers and mental health advocates earlier this week called for immediate action to make behavioral health services more available throughout the state.
One of the strongest mental health parity laws in the U.S. is on the governor's desk. It aims to help more than 13 million Californians — including those with milder mental illness and addictions.
