On Monday, California Sen. Kamala Harris released a brand-new plan aimed at making mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment affordable and available to all Americans—no costly deductibles, copays, or jumping through hoops required. This plan is part of her Medicare for All proposal.
“Instead of letting people silently suffer from depression, from drug addiction, from suicidal thoughts, we need to bring this out of the shadow and discuss it and put resources into it, get rid of the stigma,” the 2020 hopeful told an audience in Iowa earlier this November, as reported by The New York Times.
Cultural dialogues about health care tend to circle around medical care that focuses only on the body, not the mind. But mental health is health, and while it can have tremendous impacts on the individual, it can also impact friends, family, and surrounding communities. For marginalized people, like LGBTQ communities, communities of color, and homeless people, making mental healthcare more affordable and accessible could quite literally change lives.
Harris’ plan breaks down into four key areas: focus on vulnerable populations; end the mental-illness-to-jail pipeline; expand coverage of and access to mental health services; and increase access to hospitals, housing, and other care facilities.
This plan is certainly comprehensive and exciting. What are some examples of her proposal in detail? Harris wants to offer mental healthcare without deductibles or copays, including by phone or video, which is in itself pretty huge—simply getting to an appointment, much less finding a mental health provider who accepts your insurance, can be an enormous barrier for people, assuming you have coverage to begin with. This component could be hugely beneficial for people in rural areas or those who live with disabilities, too.
The senator also wants to double the number of treatment beds and authorize a federal educational loan forgiveness program for mental healthcare workers who agree to work in at-need settings.
Harris also wants to invest in screening for early childhood trauma. Relatedly, she wants to end what she describes as the mental-illness-to-jail pipeline. People who live with mental health issues are not inherently more dangerous, violent, or criminal than anyone else. But, likely due at least in part to structural barriers, people with mental health issues sometimes run the risk of ending up in the incarceration system. What’s worse, many people with mental health issues don’t receive adequate care in prison, either.
For example, youth who are regarded as “acting out” in school may be arrested or expelled (especially if they are not white), when what they really need is a mental health professional. Or a person struggling with mental health issues may commit crimes and face incarceration, when what they really need to change their behavior is resources. People who live with addiction and mental health issues, for example, may experience a compounded effect. And for low-income people in that boat, affording treatment can be a pipe dream.
Harris also wants to double what we spend on research at the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Why? To better identify veterans who are living with undiagnosed mental health issues, like PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. The senator also proposes a $100 million fund explicitly for Native American communities.
Lastly, Harris also wants to reclassify certain mental illnesses as neurological conditions instead of behavioral ones. One major example? Schizophrenia. Why is this notable? It’s a smart move that would, ideally, give better access to research funding.
“We have failed when it comes to policy solutions for Americans struggling with mental health. Too often we only focus on health care from the neck down, and we need to ensure we are addressing health care from the neck up,” says Harris in a press release as reported by ESSENCE. “My plan will deliver mental health care on demand and get care for all Americans who need it by removing obstacles like high copays and deductibles, providing direct access to providers via telemedicine, and investing research dollars into public health challenges facing our veterans.”
Harris has not yet clarified how she intends to pay for the plan or what it would cost in total. She will unveil the plan at an event in South Carolina on Monday, Nov. 25.
Harris took to Twitter to promote her plan: