Week of October 21–25, 2024

General Mental Health Articles

• Nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults said the government is not doing enough to ensure access to affordable mental health care, a new West Health-Gallup Healthcare survey found. The survey revealed that 73% of Americans said the government was not doing enough to ensure affordable access to mental health care, compared to 12% who said that it was doing about the right amount. Read more here.
• Every year, the American Psychological Association takes a look at the leading causes of stress in the U.S. and publishes an annual report. This year, the report shows all the usual suspects like money, health, and family, but one issue is dominating – politics. Read more here.
• Vice President Kamala Harris has signaled that, if elected president, she’ll work to increase mental health care access — but she acknowledges that addressing what has become an increasingly complex issue could be a heavy lift. The issue, she said during the Sept. 30 “All the Smoke” podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, “is probably one of the biggest public policy failures in our country. We have acted as though the body starts from the neck down instead of understanding we need health care from the neck up.” Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• As overdose deaths take more than 100,000 U.S. lives annually, the medical profession needs to reexamine our country’s inpatient addiction treatment system, one that is often well-intended but not always rooted in evidence, particularly when it comes to treating patients with opioid addiction. To promote the health and dignity of people with substance use disorders, we need an addiction treatment landscape with different priorities, one that invests in expanded access to medication, behavioral therapies, proven harm reduction interventions, and permanent affordable housing for people experiencing co-occurring addiction and homelessness.  Read more here.
• Consensus is growing around the idea that for some patients, higher doses of a gold-standard opioid addiction treatment drug may be better than lower doses at keeping patients healthy and in treatment, especially for those who use fentanyl. However, whether someone can access higher doses of buprenorphine — which works by curbing cravings and withdrawal from opioids — depends on where they live. In most states, Medicaid — the largest payer of substance use disorder treatment in the U.S. — caps the doses it will pay for at arbitrary levels, typically at no more than 24 milligrams. Read more here.

Health Insurance

• The push for more transparency in the health system is increasingly taking aim at "ghost networks" — the inaccurate health provider directories that critics say are keeping Americans from getting mental health care. A lawsuit filed against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield this week comes as Congress and the White House are stepping up efforts to require insurers to accurately account for which providers are in network. Read more here.  

Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues

• In an interview with NBC News, Vice President Harris said decisions on gender-affirming care should be left to doctors and their patients. The vice president said “we should follow the law” when NBC’s Hallie Jackson pressed her on whether she believes in access to gender-affirming care. Harris noted that former President Trump’s campaign has spent money on advertising that says Harris supports taxpayer-funded gender-affirmation surgeries. Read more here.
• The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether states can ban gender-affirming care for minors. Two dozen states, including Alabama and Tennessee, have banned hormone therapy for transgender youth. On Dec. 4, the high court will begin hearing a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on hormone treatments, including puberty blockers, for patients younger than 18. Read more here.
• The biennial 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report, which was released Oct. 16, shows that 73% of 199 U.S.-based LGBTQ community centers that participated in the survey reported they had experienced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment during the past two years. Read more here.