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.