[1]NNU - Medicare for All!

CW: mentions of suicidal thoughts



May is recognized as Mental Health Month, a time to bring greater
awareness to mental health as part of our overall wellness and provide
resources to those struggling with mental illness.

We have a mental health crisis in the United States. According to a 2023
study by Mental Health America, 21 percent of adults were experiencing a
mental illness in 2019-2020, which is equivalent to over 50 million
people.^1

Shockingly, 55 percent of adults with mental illness don't receive
treatment — over 28 million individuals. Most who couldn’t receive the
care they needed reported that it was because they could not afford it.^2

As Chandler Dandrige in Jacobin writes, “Mental health care in the US is a
disaster. The private insurance industry is a major reason why.”^3 But it
can be fixed.

Like the rest of our broken health care system, our mental health care
crisis could be addressed by Medicare for All, which would guarantee
mental health care services free at point of service, as well as lower
drug prices through a single-payer system.

Sharing your personal story is a powerful way to show how Medicare for All
could help solve this crisis. Here are some examples:

“There was a time after I had lost a job where I had no insurance. That
meant I had no more access to psychotherapy or the medications I needed
for my mental health issues... As a result, I ended up becoming very
depressed, anxious, and suicidal and had to be admitted to the hospital.
Because I was an inpatient there I was able to receive the medications I
needed due to a special arrangement with the company that made the drug.
Eventually, that benefit ran its course and I was without again. By that
time I had a job with health insurance that would pay for my drugs, but
offered very limited benefits for psychotherapy. It was only when I became
disabled due to those same mental health issues that I was finally able to
enroll in Medicare which covered my drugs and psychotherapy and even
psychoanalysis. If we had had Medicare for All, my life would have been
very different.”

“I cared for a family member with a mental illness. I had to constantly
try to navigate through the bizarre requirements of social services
agencies, Social Security, and Medicaid. Years went by before I was able
to get any assistance. My own financial future was threatened by paying
medical bills out of pocket. Meanwhile, doctors prescribed drugs instead
of certifying the family member for proven therapies. The drugs did
nothing for the person; they served to only enrich drug companies.
Finally, a wonderful doctor cleared the family member for a therapy that
worked. This was a miracle! The family member is now able to work;
however, if he becomes unable to work, he will once again be without
health care.”

[ [link removed] ]Do you have a story about mental health that you could share? You can
make your voice heard by joining our friends at Healthcare-Now and
participating in their "Voices of US Healthcare" project here →

It can be difficult to share personal experiences like these. But the more
we talk about how our current, broken health care system has impacted us
and how Medicare for All can help solve it, the more support we’ll build
to achieve guaranteed health care — including mental health care — for
all.

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All

P.S. — For more resources and support, you can visit
[ [link removed] ][link removed]

 

Sources:

1.“The State Of Mental Health In America 2023,” Maddy Reinert, Theresa
Nguyen, and Danielle Fritze, Mental Health America, October 2022.
[ [link removed] ][link removed]

2. Ibid.

3. “To Fix Mental Health Care, We Need Medicare for All,” Chandler
Dandridge, Jacobin, April 28, 2023.
[ [link removed] ][link removed]



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