In the United States, the burden of mental illness has continued to rise following the

increasing population of mental illness patients. Mental health is crucial and of great importance

for a person’s well-being, interpersonal relationships, good family, and the ability to live a

productive life. Under normal circumstances, individuals living with untreated mental disorders

are prone to various unhealthy and risky behaviors. Self- destructive behaviors such as suicide

have led to mental illness being termed as among the leading cause of death in United States.

Luckily, most of mental disorders can effectively be treated and prevention of mental health

illness has emerged to be a growing area of research and practice. In this paper, the importance

of providing coverage to mental health counselors enabling them to treat patients under Medicare

together with marriage and family therapists have been addressed through the description of the

Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019 (H.R. 945).

H.R. 945: Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019

Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA) and John Katko (R-N.Y.) together with

Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Stabenow (D-MI) reintroduced this Act in 2019. Under this

legislation, marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors will be in a position to

directly bill Medicare for their services (GovTrack.us. 2020). Currently, these professionals are

ineligible Medicare regardless of the great role they play in our society. It has emerged that,

these professionals deliver effective treatment services, recovery and prevention services to

various seniors and people in underserved, remote places despite a shortage in mental health

workforce. This change aims to bring an immediate increase in patients’ access to necessary care

in their communities.

On January 31st 2019, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Katko introduced the Bill which was

referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce later to the Committee on Ways and Means,
for a period to be consequently strongminded by the speaker (GovTrack.us. 2020). On June 30 th,

2020, the Bill was considered by health. In this case, a committee conducted a hearing which can

be considered as a business meeting about this Bill. Later, on September 9 th, 2020, the committee

voted to issue a report to the full chamber recommending a further consideration of the Bill

(GovTrack.us. 2020). Under normal circumstances, approximately one in four Bills are reported

out of committee. In later days, further actions to this Bill are expected to follow certain steps.

Signing by the president for the Bill to be recognized as a law will come after passing by the

House later the Senate (GovTrack.us. 2020).

Congress has long reinforced this modification. In this case, legislation to include mental

health counselors in Medicare has won two-party support in eight past Congresses (GovTrack.us.

2020). Also, the legislation was passed in full Senate on four separate occasions (GovTrack.us.

2020). In recent days, lawmakers noted a concern on scarcity of eligible mental health providers

for the Medicare population. This led to offering extended support in efforts to explore the

expansion of the mental and behavioral health workforce. Passage of Mental Health Access

Improvement Act of 2019 will easily address workforce shortage issue easily and over a short

period of time. This Bill allows provision of coverage of marriage and family therapist services

and mental health counselor services under Medicare (Kinderman, 2019). In addition, it will

allow these professionals to develop discharge plans for post-hospital services (Kinderman,

2019).

Following the main objective of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), “to grow an effective

access of affordable health insurance and reduce the number of uninsured people”, I strongly

support this Bill. In efforts to achieve this goal, mental health emerge as a benefit necessary to be

covered by health plans. I believe that this Bill will allow more the 150,000 mental health
providers join the Medicare network. Having in mind that without Medicare coverage, services

offered by marriage and family therapists or mental health counselor are expensive and hard to

access for many citizens in need. This makes me strongly support H.R.945 Bill.

The fact that marriage and family therapists (MFTs) and mental health counselor will be

in a position to fight the opioid crisis is a major reason why we need the Mental Health Access

Improvement Act. Allowing Medicare beneficiaries’ access to MFTs and mental health

counselors as recommended by this Bill expands community based addiction services and

minimize the cost of hospitalization for Medicare beneficiaries.