The Biden Administration on Monday said it had finalized regulation to help ensure the 175 million Americans with private health insurance have access to affordable mental health services. The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act already requires insurers and corporate-backed health plans to provide access and payment structures for mental healthcare services on par with other medical services. In practice, that is often not the case, with less than half of U.S. adults with mental illness able to access care in 2020, while nearly 70% of children cannot receive treatment, according to studies cited by the administration. That is partly due to a lack of mental health providers being sufficiently covered by insurance plans, leading patients to pay high out-of-pocket costs or to give up on care.
