I don’t know about you, but my psychiatrist has a very expensive hourly rate and he doesn’t take insurance. From my experience, the best psychiatrists and therapists don’t take insurance. In the summer, I scale back and go bimonthly, but the winter is when I need him most, so I go weekly. It’s a serious chunk out of my yearly budget.
But in the winter months, my seasonal affective disorder (SAD) along with my bipolar usually get the better of me. And the talk therapy my psychiatrist provides is invaluable.
The United States spent an estimated $201 billion on mental health in 2013 — the year for which data are most recently available — according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.
Both heart conditions and injury accounted for $60 billion less than mental healthcare, both for general and in-hospital care.
Noticing the extreme need for mental healthcare, the U.S. government passed the 1996, 2008, and 2016 Mental Health Parity Acts to equally distribute finances for both mental and physical health.
Approximately one in five adults — 43.8 million or 18.5 percent of the population experience severe mental health conditions in any given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). And one in twenty-five adults struggles with a mental illness that precludes them from working a steady job or participating in life events.
If you go on family medical leave, which many of us need to do, you lose out on salary — a combined total of $193.2 billion per year, also according to NAMI.
If you can’t afford your mental healthcare, there are alternatives. You may be able to meet for therapy with a graduate student who is studying psychology at a university near you. It’s not the same as a professional, but at least it’s someone in the profession to whom you can air your feelings.
Here’s a few tips to ease the burden on your pocketbook:
- The Partnership for Prescription Assistance maintains a database, searchable by zip code, that may be able to help find you a free or low-cost clinic near you.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources also provides listings of free local clinics.
- WhereToFind Care.com may also be of assistance.
I hope you find the care you need, especially during the holiday season, which for many of us can be the hardest time of the year.
Season’s greetings.
