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Mental Health Poised for New Day

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.

In many ways, our society still treats people with mental illnesses the way it did 100 years ago -- locking them up. But their future may  be better, writes Lake Worth-based health policy consultant Paul Gionfriddo.

He says the Obama administration's rule on coverage of mental illness, released this week, should go a long way toward implementing the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act. That 2008 law extended mental health benefits on a par with medical benefits, but it was an empty promise until the Affordable Care Act made health insurance available to those who had been denied it before.

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.