Ensuring more Americans have quality, affordable health coverage is an urgent national priority. Therefore, it is understandable that Medicare, one of America’s great public policy success stories, is being considered as a model to expand coverage. After all, Medicare currently provides more than 60 million older Americans — and younger adults who have long-term disabilities — reliable access to affordable care. Most conditions are covered, with one glaring omission: mental health and substance use disorders.
This is because Congress has repeatedly failed to update Medicare’s discriminatory mental health and addiction benefits to keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific knowledge and public perception around these illnesses. Consequently, Medicare lags decades behind, hindering access to mental health and addiction treatment services for all Americans who rely on the program. Thus, any proposal to expand Medicare — without fixing it first — will only serve to perpetuate discriminatory coverage.
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