About 50 million Americans live with mental illness, which puts them at risk for other health conditions, representing an annual spend of over $200 billion. Not too long ago, getting healthcare services for mental health was almost inaccessible, and only a small group of people could reserve the services.

Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more than 48 million people were without insurance. To be able to access mental health services, people need to have an insurance plan that covers mental health services at the same level as medical and surgical services, if that was even offered; that was called "parity," which means that there cannot be greater cost-sharing or other limitations for mental health services. But those services didn't cover small group plans. Also, some of those plans used the patient's screen for mental health history and denied coverage. After the ACA, mental health coverage was expanded, that allow young people to stay on their parent's plan until age 26, the coverage of mental health and prescription drugs, and cover preventive health services like mental health screening without any extra cost (Baumgartner et al., 2020).

When we think about the mental health effects that the COVID-19 pandemic left in children and adults, we can see how, according to a study done in 2021 by the National Institutes of Health, about half of the population reported symptoms of anxiety or depression that have increased since the pandemic. People who got COVID-19 were at high risk of developing brain and mental health symptoms like cognitive and attention deficit, psychosis, seizures, suicidal behaviors, anxiety, and depression. On the other hand, there is no complete evidence of how COVID-19 affected children's mental health. NIH continues to research factors that may impact children's cognitive, social, and emotional development during the pandemic (National Institutes of Health, 2023).

Please provide a Discussion Board reply