How do we make proactive healthcare available?...

As I have stated many times in my blog, mental illness is more common than we believe.  And I think that the costs involved in that fact have a significant impact on our collective bottom line. In terms of disability costs, lost productivity, ruined lives, jail time, and stressed families…it is almost incalculable how much of an impact that mental illness can have.  So, when I talk about making treatment available, I am talking about a cost saving measure.  The article that I am looking at today has the same focus.  Here is the article: http://bit.ly/14AZz2S  

If the numbers can be believed, and I believe they can, we have a significant problem with mental illness in this country.  But the good news is that treatment is available.  We really do know significantly more about appropriate treatment than we did when my Mom was suffering.  But getting appropriate treatment is a hit or miss affair for many people.  Witness the fact that the program that is discussed is a private pay program in California.  If someone doesn’t have insurance, or the funds to pay for the rehabilitation, they may just be out of luck.  This can lead to other costs.  How many families struggle with figuring out how to get adequate treatment for a family member?  How many people lose jobs, housing, and family support as they struggle with mental illness?  As I have found out personally, without insurance, there are many treatment options that are closed. Unless you claim total disability, you may struggle with obtaining treatment, maintaining medication, and other support services (therapy and rehabilitation) are almost impossible to find. What is the cost on a personal level?  Well, I think that I have talked about that in other articles.  Mental illness can be debilitating.  

This discussion is part of a larger discussion about healthcare generally.  When we don’t make healthcare available at all income levels, we have costs that we don’t recognize.  If people are forced to obtain healthcare only at the crisis stage, then the cost of the healthcare is higher than it would have been if more were available before it becomes a crisis.  And we all end up paying one way or the other.  For example, how many people obtain basic healthcare in an emergency room because they don’t have any other choice?  How much is the cost of one emergency room visit?  Obviously, very high.  The result is that our hospitals end up absorbing huge amounts in unpaid bills for emergency care for people that should have been able to deal with the issue in a less costly way.  If you don’t think those unpaid bills are passed on to the rest of us, then you are fooling yourself.  There is no free lunch.

So, what am I advocating in a time when we are debating health care, personal responsibility, and what our government should cover?  I am advocating a thoughtful and less punitive approach to healthcare availability.  The cost of illness, mental and physical, can bankrupt this country.  We have to be practical. This means looking at the REAL cost of making mental health care unavailable to large numbers of people.  What do you see as a hidden cost when we don’t take a proactive approach to dealing with mental illness?  I think that this kind of dialogue is long overdue.  Give me your feedback.