Robbin Miller

I want to share my experience I encountered a few weeks ago when I visited a client’s home. I was in the process of finding a parking space near my client’s home.

Obamacare is hurting the middle class as prices for purchasing a health plan is either not affordable and/or is affordable but has a high deductible and coinsurance strings attached. In my neck of the woods, as an example, I am finding that the average price for a decent plan with a $ 1500.00 deductible is over $ 1200.00 a month for a family. Some of these plans do cover for outpatient mental health with a co-pay but other plans require individuals to pay out of pocket costs until their deductibles are met.

I found out that a statewide union is recruiting mental health professionals to join their organization. Their purpose is to advocate and to lobby for increased reimbursements from insurance companies and from the state’s Medicaid system. Though it sounds like a great idea to unionize us for increased pay, I disagree with the yearly fee to join. I have ambivalent feelings about unions in general. I understand how they can help workers get better pay and benefits and reasonable work hours but I don’t agree with some of their tactics in getting them.

It is almost the end of year for 2013. The law for mental health professionals to bill for Medicare reimbursements is still not passed by Congress. The Affordable Healthcare Act goes into effect next month in which some insurers will be lowering reimbursements for outpatient mental health services.

In a past blog, I wrote about my volunteer experiences as a social justice advocate for persons with developmental disabilities. I wrote that I would update members on how their meeting went with the Director of the Regional Transit Authority that occurred the last week in October.