Can’t find a therapist? These new rules could change that.

Biden's new requirements will make it harder for insurers to limit mental health care.

It’s generally easier to treat an ulcer than an eating disorder in the United States. That’s because insurance companies historically have handled mental health services differently than physical and surgical care. We could have excused this before knowing how much our minds affect our overall wellbeing, but now that science confirms it, the approach is out of touch. It’s also illegal.

That’s why the Biden administration on Monday announced new rules to strengthen an existing law to ensure the 175 million Americans paying for private health insurance get better access to care for mental health and substance use issues.

“Health care, whether for physical or behavioral conditions, is health care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Monday. “No one should receive lesser care for one or the other. That’s the law. The rules we issue today make that clear.”

The timing might seem like an election stunt, but it is the result of a years-long process that included a public comment period. This is genuinely good consumer protection news for people of all political persuasions.

Running on empty

The new rules update the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act that Congress passed in 2008. That law was supposed to make insurers treat beneficiaries’ minds and bodies equally. But it lacked specifics in key areas, and companies took advantage of the vagaries to avoid complying with the law. That’d be like borrowing a friend’s car and returning it with an empty tank because they didn’t tell you, and you didn’t ask, what kind of gas it takes.

Since private insurers are profit-driven, and updating systems and expanding mental health benefits are expensive in the short-term, they weren’t incentivized to do the right thing. Over the long run, treating mental illness and addiction would reduce the cost of treating physical ailments by the billions of dollars. Despite that, a lack of parity in health coverage has added to the cost and stigma around mental health and substance use services.

It has also made a lot of people give up trying to get help. This has real consequences. In 2020, less than half of all adults with mental illness received treatment. And nearly 70 percent of kids who seek care for mental health or substance use cannot get it. This is a problem in a country where as many as two in five adults have anxiety or depression and suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people, ages 10 to 24 years old.