What a $500M Request in Obama’s 2017 Budget Means for Mental Health Services
Mental Health has made it to the national stage in a real and a meaningful way. President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget includes a request for $500 million in “new mandatory funding” for mental health services.
Here’s the full text of the request:
Expanding Access to Mental Health Care. One in five American adults experience a mental health issue at some point in their life, yet millions do not receive the care they need. The Budget includes $500 million in new mandatory funding to help engage individuals with serious mental illness in care, improve access to care by increasing service capacity and the behavioral health workforce, and ensure that behavioral health care systems work for everyone.
As proposed, this budget adds $178 billion to a $438 billion deficit as it makes its way to congress (according to the New York Times). That means a lot of big-swath cuts. At $500 million, the mental health services request is a small fraction of budget. Let’s hope it survives the chopping block.
From BreezyNotes’ standpoint, the last line about ensuring “… that behavioral health care systems work for everyone.” is especially heartening. It reaffirms that the Executive branch sees value in the systems that help clients get the care they need and providers to give it. As a player in that “systems” space, that’s been our goal all along–to let our customers focus on what’s best for their clients and making everything else a breeze.
Even if it’s cut, the silver lining of making the president’s budget is that mental health services are part of the national conversation about healthcare in the United States. After being excluded from the EHR incentive program’s “Eligible Provider” list despite it being mandated (something close to our hearts), this is a welcome change.
It’s a change that’s clearly needed to happen as the number of national-level events casting light on our country’s mental health concerns have increased. Kudos are due to everyone out there trying to break the “stigma” of mental illness and bring mental health into the discourse at the federal level is paying off.