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Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans offered through GetCoveredIllinois.gov are required to cover mental health services. Medicaid and Medicare also cover mental health services. These new protections build on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act to expand mental health and substance use disorder benefits and parity protections to tens of millions of Americans. “Parity” means the coverage offered for mental health services must be comparable to the coverage offered for medical and surgical care.
Because of the parity law, health plans must now cover preventive services like depression screening for adults at no cost. Also, plans cannot charge you more due to pre-existing health conditions, including mental health conditions.
Help in an emergency:
If you are experiencing emotional distress and have suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at
1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Help in a non-urgent situation:
If you feel you are experiencing the symptoms of a mental health condition, schedule a time to discuss your feelings with your health care provider or Illinois HIV Care Connect case manager. If you are not yet enrolled in Illinois HIV Care Connect, you may enroll through seven different regional offices.
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