A study in JAMA Psychiatry finds that inpatient admissions for behavioral health disorders significantly declined following the 2006 expansion of health insurance coverage in Massachusetts, contrary to expectations. “This signifies much lower out of pocket burden for young adults with a behavioral health crisis, as well as less uncompensated care burdening hospitals,” the researchers write.
Meara, E., Golberstein, E., Zaha, R., Greenfield, S., et al; Use of Hospital-Based Services Among Young Adults With Behavioral Health Diagnoses Before and After Health Insurance Expansions. JAMA Psychiatry. Online February 19, 2014.
Of further interest:
Expanded Insurance: Mental Health Care Admissions Drop (Medscape)
I think this article and the consequences of so called “mental/behavioral health” parity are a good reason to drop insurance and/or avoid the medical/mental “health profession” in general unless there is a dire life threatening emergency since most have sold out to the biopsychiatry/Big Pharma cartel. It is well known that Obama sold out to Big Pharma when lobbying for his Obamacare and due to recent shootings probably caused by biopsychiatry’s toxic stigmas and drugs, bogus screenings actually funded by Big Pharma in schools (!) and forced drugging and commitment laws are on the rise.
I find the term “behavioral health” vile and pernicious for reasons partially explained by the following article since I don’t agree with the bogus conclusion:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/promoting-hope-preventing-suicide/200911/behavioral-health-vs-mental-health-battle-conformity
And of course, Dr. Thomas Szasz has been the greatest brilliant expert debunking the bogus, life destroying “sledgehammer” of DSM stigmas or the fraud of “mental illness.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Mental_Illness
Anyway, what this article proves is that anyone unfortunate or uninformed enough to visit a psychiatrist as a vulnerable young adult or even child will most likely wind up with a life destroying bogus bipolar stigma with a prescription for a cocktail of lethal drugs for life even if presenting with substance abuse per Dr. Jill Litrell on this site and other sources. Of course, they might get the bogus depression or ADHD stigma first to be converted to bipolar once the ill effects of kiddie cocaine or SSRI’s show up or they will get toxic neuroleptics for their so called ADHD and autism or even off label “behavioral” issues, so these youth can’t win. Neuroleptics are being pushed on TV as an “adjunct” to SSRI’s probably to nip the mania in the bud before it becomes too obvious. This monstrosity will cause brain damage, disability, loss of all human, civil and democratic rights and forced treatment for life in many cases and many other pernicious lies attributed to the victims such as their lifelong severe mental illness and inability to handle stress, a challenging job or career or handle life in general while being at the mercy of biopsychiatry. It is well known that most hospitalizations of youth and young adults in recent times resulted in bogus bipolar stigmas and lethal drugs, so now it is most likely being done on an “out patient” basis with the pretense that normal, typical life problems and crises are “mental/behavioral health” issues. See Dr. Peter Breggin’s Toxic Psychiatry, Your Drug May Be Your Problem, 2nd ed., Reclaiming Our Children and his many other great books and web sites. Dr. Fred Baughman, author of ADHD Fraud is another great source for exposing this tragedy perpetrated against our youth.
I like Dr. Szasz’ analogy that so called mental health medicine is to real medicine as spring fever is to scarlet fever or heart break is to heart attack. He also says when somebody hits someone over the head with a sledgehammer he/she is called a thug though when psychiatrists hit somebody over the head with a life destroying bogus psychiatric stigma and brain damaging drugs or ECT, the results are the same while they are not identified as equal to the other thugs when they are.
The fact that biopsychiatry had to create the term, “behavioral health” exposes the truth that they are only a means of social control punishing disapproved or unusual behaviors that are “treated” with brain damaging/disabling drugs as Dr. Szazs, Dr. Peter Breggin and many others expose.
Since it is well known that the vast majority in crisis are treated with the main stream biopsychiatry paradigms of bogus stigmas and lethal drugs, I am sorry to say I don’t think this article is good news. I certainly hope that I am wrong, but I doubt it given my own knowledge of this deadly paradigm.
mental health ‘parity’ was pushed for by years by nami
and it never took off
‘parity’ was put on a bail-out package, in the dark of the night
and ‘mental health parity’ will now expand, beyond recognition, with the new health care act…. pharma is due *big-time* payback money, like we’ve never seen.
good luck, america…
next time (if we have have a next time), we need to be much more careful with what we ask for…
duane
it is still *our* country, by the way… for anyone interested in taking it back
duane
smh… there is no such thing as “behavioral health”, it’s merely a euphemism for social control using harmful psychotropic drugs.
The doctor says to the parent/authority “So, how has he been behaving lately? has his behavior been healthy? Oh, he’s misbehaving? That’s not healthy at all. Yep, looks like a classic case of behavioral disease. Here, force him to take these powerful, harmful, proven-to-cause-irreversible-brain-damage psychotropic drugs. Yep, that ought to make his behavior healthy again!”
Just another typical day in the life of a psychiatrist.
amen