General Mental Health Articles
- Research shows an estimated 94 million Americans perceive politics as a significant source of stress. Some even lose sleep over politics and others struggle with suicidal thoughts. “The constant barrage of negativity and fear driven narratives was leaving me irritable, exhausted, and anxious. Politics was killing my soul,” Rachel, an Indianapolis resident in her fifties, told Side Effects. “So, I decided for my mental health to listen to more music and humorous podcasts like wait, wait, don't tell me on NPR.” Read more here.
Research
- No matter who you voted for, election fallout has many voters still feeling a wide array of emotions, and social media has been busy with many people voicing their opinions on the election results. Social media has transformed politics and how we discuss them. It's where many folks air their political opinion. "The reality is, whenever we get on social media, we have an agenda," says George Atkins, a licensed professional counselor with New Directions Mental Health. Read more here.
Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues
- The Trump-Vance Republican ticket has been vocal and incredibly negative about the LGBTQ+ community in recent weeks, constantly pushing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and promising to enact abhorrent policies. The last Trump presidency led to a roll-back of protections and anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ+ people, and it doesn’t look as if a second term would be any different, based on campaign promises and the detailed policy proposals outlined in Project 2025 – although Trump has tried to distance himself from the right-wing proposals. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- During his first term, Trump tried several times to repeal the ACA but was unsuccessful. In November 2023, he also vowed to replace it in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. Since then, he has shifted course. In March, Trump said is "not running to terminate" the ACA but said he wanted to make it "better" and "less expensive," in a post on Truth Social. Read more here.
- Medicare regulators finalized rules to pay for some mental health apps, a breakthrough for digital therapeutics companies that have struggled for a foothold in the health care system. The new rule creates codes that allow clinicians to bill Medicare for providing the apps and related services to their patients. Beginning January 1, 2025, the codes will enable payment for mental health apps authorized by the Food and Drug Administration under a specific regulation that includes just a handful of treatments for conditions like depression and substance use disorder. Read more here.
- With former President Trump headed back to the White House, the U.S. Medicaid program, which covers medical care for people with low incomes, could face cuts. However, Medicaid’s transformation to a program mostly run by private insurers adds an influential industry to its list of guardians, alongside the rural hospitals that rely on the program to balance their budgets. The threat to Medicaid emerges, in part, from simple math. Republicans are likely to go looking for some major places to cut spending to help fund a plan to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Read more here.
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