Mar 072006
Our state legislators are giving some overdue attention to Minnesota’s publicly funded mental health care system. For too long, Minnesotans who were enrolled in state-funded health care programs lacked access to the same range of mental health care services that were available to people on Medical Assistance. A panel of mental health professionals and consumers is now proposing that anyone enrolled in a public health care program should have access to a comprehensive set of mental health benefits. The proposal also envisions a statewide crisis intervention system, increased payment for some mental health providers, and more resources to school-based mental health care for children.
These recommendations would bring much more uniformity to a mental health system that currently varies from county to county. It also gives a significantly larger number of people better access to the services they need to live independently in their communities. Legislators on both sides of the aisle are making favorable remarks about the proposal, which is a hopeful sign of its eventual enactment. Perhaps once the Legislature finishes restructuring the public mental health system, it can turn its attention to the disparities between mental and physical health care in the private insurance market.
