Mental health care may be harder to obtain after HHS rule reversal- Trigger warning! This discusses suicide and overdose

[tulipsandroses]

For a recent therapy session, Andria Donaghy’s insurance plan paid her psychiatric nurse practitioner only $11 on a $125 service.

“To even put that on paper is insulting,” she said. “These people give their lives [to help others] and that’s what you pay them?”
Andria Donaghy knows firsthand the value of good mental illness treatment. Her father died of suicide, her cousin’s struggles with bipolar disorder contributed to his drug overdose, and she herself spent decades mired in addiction and depression. A recent complication of her treatment has been her insurance plan’s low coverage rates for mental health services, especially compared to its coverage for medical and surgical services.
When Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, the law was supposed to prevent private insurance companies from instituting unequal coverage for mental health and physical health services. It fell short, as multiple federal reports indicated that insurance companies routinely exploited loopholes to avoid paying rates for mental health services that were commensurate with those for other health care. This can lead providers to drop clients and can saddle people with debt. A 2024 survey found that 1 in 4 Americans in frequent mental distress could not see a doctor due to cost.

The Department of Health and Human Services and two other federal agencies attempted to sew up these loopholes in 2024. But it appears that the agencies’ new leadership will walk back these regulatory updates after a lawsuit challenged them. On May 9, three federal agencies, including HHS, notified the judge that they will not force companies to comply with the current regulations, including potentially modifying or rescinding the regulation.
SNIP--- In 2021 and 2022, MHPAEA enforcement removed treatment limitations and expanded access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits for over 4 million participants, beneficiaries, and enrollees across more than 39,000 plans. But these and other hard-fought gains are now threatened by the federal policy reversal.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/13/hhs-roll-back-rules-impact-on-mental-health-substance-abuse-care/