Biden announces rules to boost access to mental healthcare and addiction treatment

The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a new set of proposed rules attempting to increase access to mental healthcare and addiction treatment services by strengthening requirements for health insurance companies to cover care.

“I don’t know what the difference between breaking your arm and having a mental breakdown is. It’s health,” said President Joe Biden at a press conference.

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The rules announced under the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services require health insurance providers to collect and report data on the barriers they impose to accessing mental health and addiction care, including how many providers are in network, how much they reimburse providers, and the difficulty joining a network as a provider.

“Give me a break. It’s ridiculous,” Biden said of the barriers to accessing care. “It prevents people from getting the care they need. … Fix it, fix it, fix it.”

Passed in 2008, the bipartisan Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act prohibits insurance companies from instituting barriers to mental health and addiction care that are higher than other forms of medical treatment, such as higher co-payments or pre-authorizations.

“There is greater parity, not nearly enough, but greater parity than in the past,” said Biden. “It doesn’t need to be this way.”

Biden credited Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) for her work in passing and implementing the bill.

“Funding behavioral healthcare, like any other healthcare, works,” said Stabenow.

The proposed rules have also been introduced in coordination with the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration to ensure compliance for employee healthcare coverage, which is already vested with information gathering responsibility under MHPAEA.

“Mental health care is as important to the well-being of America’s workers as medical care, and we must eliminate barriers to getting people the lifesaving care that they often need,” said acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su in the announcement from HHS.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will also be partnering in the enforcement of greater compliance mechanisms for health insurance programs. CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said that her office, “working in partnership with other agencies, continues to remove barriers and expand access to critical services. This rule is a demonstration of the administration’s commitment to parity between physical and mental health services and helping to ensure people get the care they need.”

Biden also said that the next steps to increasing access to care and addressing the root causes of mental health disorders, such as loneliness and social media, are essential moving forward. Addressing the mental health crisis is a key pillar in Biden’s so-called Unity agenda, along with the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative.

“In support of the President’s Unity Agenda,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, “we continue to take actions to address the nation’s mental health crisis. We are ensuring that mental health is treated no differently than physical health and people in need of services have equitable access to care.”

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“It is important for people to realize they are not alone,” said Biden. “Their country has their back, and their president has their back.”

“There is nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together,” said Biden.