Who will care for the mentally ill?

There is a problem in this country that few are willing to talk about and it centers around caring for the mentally ill. This is a major public health issue and it cannot be ignored as we move forward with healthcare reform.

At a recent meeting with Palmetto Health Foundation board members, they announced they will continue with fundraising efforts for the construction of a new psychiatric emergency room that will be built on the campus of Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia, SC. It is expected to be complete in 2011 and will be staffed with mental health professionals who can meet the needs of these patients.

The crisis in mental health in South Carolina grows more serious all the time. Public funding has been cut to almost nothing in many states, and other means of care are strained as a result. Prisons, public hospitals and homeless shelters are all full of seriously ill patients who do not get the care they need.

I wonder what proponents of “competition” in healthcare would do about the thousands of mentally ill who are not accepted by for-profit psych hospitals or private hospitals.

The free market has no relevance for these people, because no one wants to deal with the problem. The capitalist economic model has made this country the most prosperous on earth, but it does not work to serve the needs of the mentally ill.

The disconnect is that we have said as a society that we will not refuse to care for patients. In a free market that would never be possible. People who say we need more free market in healthcare ignore the illnesses of patients who don’t meet the free market model.

The Accountable Care Act will help in terms of attempting to insure some of these patients. Even so, states continue to close their public beds and that is a problem.

State governments need to get involved and reassess their commitment to the mentally ill. These patients and this problem are not going away.

Kester Freeman blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.