By Bob Katzen
The Senate 39-0, approved and sent to the House legislation, known as the Mental Health Addressing Barriers to Care (ABC) Act that will make mental health care more accessible in the Bay State.
“Today, the Massachusetts Senate took vital strides toward transforming mental health care in Massachusetts,” said Sen. Julian Cyr (D-Truro), House chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery. “By unanimously passing [this bill], we affirm that mental health is just as essential as physical health and take a leap forward to ensure that all people in Massachusetts can access the mental health care they need and deserve.”
“Massachusetts’ health care system should deliver affordable, high quality and accessible care to all of our residents—including mental health care,” said Sen. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington), Senate chair of the Committee on Health Care Financing. “This bill recognizes that mental health care is just as important, valuable and worthy of treatment as physical health care. And begins to tackle our most pressing issues, such as expanding services to all corners of the commonwealth, enforcing existing parity laws and addressing the boarding crisis in our Emergency Departments that is impacting too many of our children and families.”
The 39-0 vote shows there’s real momentum on the mental health parity issues Sen. Friedman raised, and honestly, that kind of unanimous support is rare these days. For people in the Bay State who’ve felt left out by these barriers, hopefully this bill translates into actual services and not just paper promises. On the lighter side, when I need a break from reading about legislative health care debates, the story guides and character profiles on this fan site are a nice way to unwind in the evenings.