(NewsNation) — Retired politician and mental health advocate Patrick Kennedy says the American health care industry doesn’t do enough to treat those suffering from mental illness until it’s “almost too late.”
“We need to talk more openly. And we can’t wait till it’s a crisis, which, unfortunately, is where we are in this country,” Kennedy said on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “We don’t treat people until it’s a stage 4 illness. And we don’t get people help until, frankly, it’s almost too late. And then we wonder why so many people are dying of suicide and overdose.”
The suicide rate in the U.S. in 2022 was 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people, which is the highest rate since 1941, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Drug deaths nationwide, according to the CDC, also hit a new record in 2022 with nearly 110,000 people dying as the fentanyl crisis worsened amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those alarming statistics point to a need for more access to mental health care in the U.S.
“We’ve never paid for mental health,” said Kennedy. “It’s the lowest reimbursed service in the health care system, even after your bill. What the insurance companies still do is they pay such anemic wages, hardly anything. … A lot of people have to go out of network or pay cash.”
President Joe Biden announced in 2023 that his administration was moving forward with new rules meant to push insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental health treatments.
The new regulations, which still need to go through a public comment period, would require insurers to study whether their customers have equal access to medical and mental health benefits and to take remedial action, if necessary. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act requires that insurers provide the same level of coverage for both mental and physical health care — though the administration and advocates argue insurers’ policies restrict patient access.
The rules, if finalized, would force insurers to study patient outcomes to ensure mental health and physical health benefits are administered equally, taking into account their provider network and reimbursement rates and whether prior authorization is required for care.
Kennedy, while thanking Biden, hailed the proposed new regulations as a positive step.
“We’re about to fix that,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.