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Health Care Reform Law Will Help People Living with Mental Illness

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). The Mental Health Association in PA joins mental health advocates across the nation in applauding this groundbreaking legislation, which helps individuals with mental illness by expanding access to critical preventative health care and treatment for insured, uninsured, and underinsured Americans. 

The provisions key to the mental health community include:

• Expanded access to health insurance coverage and more affordable, quality-driven coverage.  
• Inclusion of mental health and substance abuse services in basic benefits packages.
• Increased emphasis on and access to preventative care.
• Assistance for consumers whose rights are violated.
• Coordination between primary care and mental health care so that all care is offered at one primary location.
• Improved quality of mental health treatment.
• Prohibiting pre-existing exclusions from coverage.
• Making coverage of all dependent children available until age 26.

For more information about how this historic health care reform legislation will help consumers of mental health services, visit the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law’s Health Care Reform overview page.