Your mental health revolves around your stable emotional, psychological and social well-being. The level of satisfactory behavioural, emotional tendency and the absence of any mental disturbance or illness also determines your mental health and its state. Hence, the need to know the best mental insurance plan.
The ability to create a rhythm between life activities and achieve a psychological balance can also be termed as good mental health. But like every other body function, mental health also suffers a mild or drastic breakdown.
Mental health issues may arise due to depression, anxiety, stress or loneliness, loss of a loved one, grief or severe cases of addiction. Although Mental health disorders are not necessarily evil, anyone can have them.
Getting health care for mental health conditions on your insurance is essential, but it is also vital that you get the best possible available treatment. It is necessary to know what insurers offer and what options they set available or limits they place so you’ll be able to choose the best mental health insurance.
Mental Health Problems
Mental disorder refers to a wide variety of psychological conditions that affect your mood, the way you think and your general behaviour, if they are in any bit disturbing, they can also be diagnosed as mental problems.
Examples of the main groups of mental illness include:
- Mood Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders
- Psychotic Disorders
- Substance Abuse Disorder
- Trauma-Related Disorders
Causes:
There are nearly 300 mental disorders. There is no particular cause that can be attributed to mental disorders. They are caused by a combination of factors that may include genetic, use and abuse of drugs, biological or medical conditions, or some devastating negative experiences a person might also have had in the early stages of their lives.
Some mental issues are self-inflicted and can occur when a person consistently holds on to negative hurting traits like low self-esteem or perfection, which can lead to chronic anxiety and depression.
Symptoms:
The signs associated with a mental disorder can vary significantly among individuals depending on the type of sickness and circumstances surrounding the illness.
Some signs and symptoms you can also check out for include:
- Long periods of sadness
- Reduced ability to concentrate and control coordination
- High level of worry and feelings of guilt
- Extreme mood swings
- Withdrawal attitude and detachment from reality
- Increased tendency for violence, hostility and rage
- Change in sex drives
- Suicidal thoughts
Risk Considerations:
Certain things may increase your risk of getting mentally ill; they also could include:
- If your family has a record of mental illness
- Life’s stress and burdens
- An existing chronic mental condition
- A fatal injury that had caused damage to the brain, like a violent hit to the head
- Traumatic Experience.
- Alcohol and substance use
- Neglect or abuse maybe from early life
- Unhealthy relationships
Leaving mental illness unattended can cause mild to a severe disturbance that could also affect your emotions and behavioural functions severely and cause some unwanted complications, which includes:
- Decreased happiness in life,
- Personal, Familia and Relationships conflict,
- Isolation,
- Skipping work or school,
- Legal problems,
- Financial problems,
- Homelessness,
- Weakened immune system,
- Death.
Insurance Policies for Mental Health.
In getting the best mental health insurance, make sure you ask and clarify the following questions before choosing an insurance plan for your mental health.
- Does my medical provider accept this insurance plan?
- Will my plan cover for substance abuse?
- Does my policy cover pre-existing conditions?
- How much is required I pay for each visit.
If the answers to the above questions are satisfactory to you, you should also go ahead to inquire on what limitations affect your cover.
Personal mental health insurance limitations would include:
- No coverage if treatment is being sought at a student center,
- Some insurers place a limit to the maximum number of visits you get per annum,
- Most insurers only cover a percentage of the cost of your visit,
- Some policies have exclusion from suicidal and substance abuse.
What does an excellent mental health insurance cover?
There is no comprehensive insurance policy that fits all kinds of mental health conditions. The ‘best’ mental health insurance is the one that combines affordability according to your financial capability, availability of mental health professionals in the insurance plan network, proper coverage of prescription medications and also covers for your particular type of mental illness.
Proper mental health insurance should cover the following:
- Substance Abuse Treatment: This provides treatment for substance abuse disorder, which could include alcohol and drug dependencies that can severely affect a person’s mental health stability.
- Prescription Medications: This covers prescription medications that would be used alongside other treatments to help mental disorder patients.
- Talk Therapy: This identifies the cause of mental issues and helps guide mental health patients on how to manage their problems more manageable and positively.
- Psychotherapy: This treatment involves talking to a professional therapist to help you uncover psychological strategies which helps you manage and relieve symptoms of mental illness. This treatment is mostly a practical approach to handle trauma effects.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: This treatment help patients confront ill thoughts patterns with positive cognitive behaviours.
- Behavioural Therapy: This is similar to cognitive behavioural therapy but specifically addresses certain learned behaviours and their effects and provides solutions to curb them.
- Electro-Convulsive Therapy: Small charges of electric current are passed into the brain to trigger a controlled seizure intentionally. This procedure resets certain areas of the brain chemistry and also causes changes in the patient’s mental health; it is the riskiest and usually the last resort.
Benefits of having a mental health insurance
Having mental health insurance, especially if you know that there is a mental illness in the family, can save you a lot of stress and burden both emotionally and financially. It would provide you with an improved quality of life and relationship. A good insurance policy also offers you immediate coverage for treatment and reduce any chance of complications or risk of other related medical issues. You are also opportune to get hospice, encouragement and support during the time of the illness.
Best Mental health insurance provider
There are over 900 companies that provide health insurance in the US, though not all would give mental health services. Here are a few of the recommended companies with a wide range of available coverage that include mental health:
- United Healthcare.
- Kaiser Permanente.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
- Humana.
- Cigna Health Insurance.
- Aetna.