Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mental Health to Benefit From ACA

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

At his blog Our Health Policy Matters, health consultant Paul Gionfriddo writes that public officials often use suicide data as a proxy for the seriousness of mental health problems. But those rates really don’t give a good picture, he argues, since there are people who have mental illness who don’t commit suicide, or don't succeed.

But one happy byproduct of the Affordable Care Act that has gotten little attention, he says, is a change in the way mental-health treatment is measured and paid for to emphasize quality of care.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.