The Affordable Care Act is a law passed by American President Barack Obama in relation to the health care of American citizens. The Act was aimed at ensuring that people receive quality care at lower rates. The Act will ensure that in all the essential health care benefits that are available to the citizens, the mental health and substance abuse disorders are going to be covered. The disorders shall be covered together with the surgical and the medical benefits building on the Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which requires the health plan and insurance to offer coverage akin to general and surgical care (Beronio, Po, Skopec, & Glied, 2013). Therefore, the Affordable Care Act ensures that millions of Americans suffering from mental health and substance abuse are covered by the law.
The Affordable Care Act will ensure that people having mental health and substance abuse disorders will have essential health care benefits (Garfield, Zuvekas, Lave, & Donohue, 2011). This will be both for the individual and the small groups. This shows that when an individual decides to take a health insurance cover he or she is assured that he will be properly covered even from problems like mental health and substance abuse (Garfield et al., 2011). The Affordable Care Act has made it possible for the people who had already taken cover to be insured for mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Research has shown that a significant number of people are going to benefit from this Act and the treatment of mental health and substance abuse.
The Act will provide parity for the individual and the smaller group markets whereby those who will take the insurance cover are going to be ensured of getting similar coverage for mental health and substance abuse as they get for the other general medical and surgical coverage plans. This enables those that are covered and have mental health and substance abuse issues to enjoy essential health benefits that are in accordance with the protection of the federal parity under the Mental Health Parity and the Addiction Equity Act, which are all covered under the Affordable Care Act (Buck, 2011). Moreover, it will make it possible for 23.3 million Americans that are covered in the small group plans to also enjoy coverage for mental health disorders and substance abuse under the federal parity law.
The Affordable Care Act enables access to quality health care for the individuals that were earlier uninsured (Kocher & Adashi, 2011). This will be achieved through ensuring access of individuals and small groups to the essential health benefits, which will also cover the mental health and substance abuse disorders (Kocher & Adashi, 2011). This will also be in accordance with the law on federal parity.
In a nutshell, the Affordable Care Act will benefit the American people in terms of coverage for mental health and substance abuse disorders. Therefore, this Act can be seen to be very beneficial since it will enable those that are suffering from mental health problems and substance abuse disorders to have a way to get help for their problems, ensuring that the nation remains healthy. The country will be sure to develop since a healthy nation is an essential requirement for ensuring that it develops and reaches greater heights.
References
Beronio, K., Po, R., Skopec, L., & Glied, S. (2013). Affordable Care Act expands mental health and substance use disorder benefits and federal parity protections for 62 million Americans. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 3(4), 486-502.
Buck, J. A. (2011). The looming expansion and transformation of public substance abuse treatment under the Affordable Care Act. Health Affairs, 30(8), 1402-1410.
Garfield, R. L., Zuvekas, S. H., Lave, J. R., & Donohue, J. M. (2011). The impact of national health care reform on adults with severe mental disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168(5), 486-494.
Kocher, R. P., & Adashi, E. Y. (2011). Hospital readmissions and the Affordable Care Act: Paying for coordinated quality care. Jama, 306(16), 1794-1795.