Despite the passage of the mental health parity act a few years ago, and the help that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has also brought, many Americans still fall through the cracks of our disjointed, disorganized public mental health care system.
Unlike public health care, the public mental health system is a patchwork quilt of disparate systems that vary incredibly from state to state. They also rely on significant state funding — funding that’s usually the first to be cut when state budgets are tight.
The U.S. is one of the most wealthy societies in the world who’s standard of living would make people envious. Shouldn’t we do more to ensure that just because you’re poor, you have the same access to treatment as you would if you were poor and had a medical concern?