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erieangel -> Romney presidency wrong for 40 million Americans (10/23/2012 7:53:40 PM)
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In a recent LA Times article, an argument was put forth that a Romney presidency would negatively impact the health and welfare of up to 40 million people.
40 million people a year suffer from some form of mental health crisis. But for some reason, the issues facing those 40 million have not been addressed at all in this long campaign. To put that number into perspective, (from the article) "about 12 million Americans are living with some form of cancer; 400,000 Americans suffer from multiple sclerosis; 1 million from Parkinson's and 1.2 million are living with HIV/AIDS. So 40 million is a significant constituency of sick people."
Obama has a record of advancing the interests of the mentally ill. He has done more to advance the treatment of and research into mental illness than any other president in history; he signed the mental health parity bill, which states that insurance companies must treat mental illness like any other illness--no more caps on annual psychiatric visits, lengths of hospital stays, etc. Mental health parity has made a difference in the lives of millions of people and families who had struggled with financing treatment for themselves or their loved ones.
The PPACA went a step further, requiring most insurance companies to cover mental health treatment in some form. And the expansion of medicaid will help those who do not have insurance to get treatment. Obama has also increased the budget to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which does research into the causes and treatments of some of the most debilitating mental illnesses.
In contrast, Romney has promised to repeal PPACA, which would mean that the millions who now have coverage for their mental illness (I had been restricted to 4 psychiatric visits and 15 days in the hospital for mental health care prior to 2010) might lose their enhanced coverage. And it's hard to imagine funding to the NIMH. And medicaid is on the chopping block under Romney, who wants to turn it into a block grant when states can not be trusted to care for the needs of their most vulnerable citizens.
Too bad many mentally ill people don't bother to vote--in truth they are too busy trying to deal with day to day life. And those that do often don't look deeply into the issues facing them. But 40 million is a number that is hard to ignore. A good percentage of these people are unable, currently, to hold down jobs or even function enough to care for their everyday needs like daily showers and proper diet.
It is way past time we have a national debate on what to do about mental illness and the stigma associated with having a mental illness.
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