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Patrick Kennedy Talks
The "Turmoil" Of
Protecting Mental
Health Care In The
Trump Age
We spoke to the former Congressman about the future
of mental health treatment and his new project,
Advocates for Opioid Recovery.
Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy
[Photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage]
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After his father, Ted Kennedy, passed away,
former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy chose
not to run for re­election in the House of
Representatives so he could devote more energy
to the issue that he cares most deeply about:
changing the way we talk about and treat millions
of Americans who suffer from mental health
disorders.
Kennedy's goal is to remove the stigma around
mental illness and addiction. He chronicled how
how these diseases run in his own family in his
memoir, A Common Struggle. And now,
alongside Newt Gingrich and social justice activist
Van Jones, he has founded an organization called
Advocates for Opioid Recovery. The group's goal
is to provide millions of people with the
medications they need to fight opioid addiction.
A month into life under the
Trump administration, I spoke
to Kennedy about this new
project and more.
Fast Company: Tell us a bit
more about your efforts to
bring us closer to mental
health parity, which
requires mental health benefits to be
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reimbursed on par with medical and surgical
benefits.
Patrick Kennedy: Parity was passed in 2008,
but it really went into effect within the Affordable
Care Act. It was treated as an essential health
benefit. I like to say that the ACA was really a
mental health bill, but most people don't think of
it as such. It represented the biggest step forward
we have had in covering people who were
previously denied or couldn't get affordable
coverage.
So why aren't we all getting the same access
to mental health as we would any other kind
of health care service?
We are still in the formative stages. We didn't
really have a chance to enforce parity within the
ACA plans. We saw staggering inequities in how
mental health parity was applied by the various
insurers. Unfortunately, the insurance companies
have a real stranglehold on the Hill so we have
had trouble since we passed the law just getting it
implemented.
We even got resistance from
"I like to say
that the ACA
was really a
mental
health bill,
but most
people don't
the Obama administration
because they had to juggle how
to get the ACA implemented
with the support of insurance
plans, which were some of the
biggest supporters in getting it
passed initially. They were
loathe to push anything that as
think of it as
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think of it as
such."
perceived as onerous
regulatory requirements on
these insurers.
How would you take steps to enforce the law?
I have tried but you can't enforce it unless you
have disclosure of [insurance companies']
medication management practices. On the whole,
the insurers haven't complied and the government
hasn't enforced it. Until we see the data, we can't
really audit it to see if the insurers are compliant.
What's the future of mental health in America
with the ACA on the chopping block?
Everything has been thrown into turmoil with all
the talk of ACA repeal. In my opinion, if you take
it away, you take the rug out from underneath this
whole movement to treat mental health disorders
like any other illness. This past January, I hosted
an event around how we anticipate the repeal
going into effect. I think our strategy should be to
prepare for the worst if the ACA gets undone.
We can really take a page from the Civil Rights
struggle. What got the legislation implemented
was the process of going to the individual states
and locales and organizations and companies to
establish case law—and you know, to fight for
implementation and seek redress where there
were wrongs and identify patterns of
discrimination. We could use this new energy that
you see on the television every night with people
protesting all around the country. You can
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mobilize this whole movement coming together. I
also have strong relations with the labor union
leadership, as my family has worked with them a
long time.
We could make a case to
the elected attorneys
general and say, "You have
an obligation to make sure
that your consumers aren't
discriminated against
when it comes to the
insurance they purchased.
"I think our
strategy
should be to
prepare for
the worst if
the ACA gets
undone."
You need to investigate the
insurance practices if it's
clear there's some smoke." I think we can take this
on.
There's still so much stigma attached to
mental health. Will that prevent any of your
mobilizing efforts? Will people come forward
and speak out?
This has been the most difficult part of the whole
advocacy movement. Part of it is that so many
people can't admit to their own family that they're
living with the disease. The medical system is
living in denial, and patients are living in denial.
To address this, I started ParityTrack for anyone
to register a complaint about rights being violated.
Can you speak about your efforts to engage
with Republicans, namely Newt Gingrich,
your Advocates for Opioids cofounder?
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I maintain a close relationship with the former
Speaker [Gingrich]. He has enormous influence in
health care policymaking in general, and is
regarded as a real expert. He's relied upon by the
Trump Administration for a lot of advice right
now around these issues. Between him and
[Senator] Rob Portman in Ohio, this issue is
getting some attention in the administration. Ohio
has been highly impacted by the addiction crisis,
which is killing thousands.
I would also remind the
"So many
people can't
admit to
their own
family that
they're
living with
the disease.
The medical
system is
living in
denial, and
patients are
living in
denial."
administration that the new
president was elected in states
with the highest rate of suicide
and overdose in the country.
His voter base is drastically
affected by this. And studies
have found that life expectancy
of middle­aged white men is
going down.
Do you have a sense that the
Trump administration will
move this issue forward? Is
mental health a priority?
Right now, it seems like there's
been a bit of a chaotic attitude toward everything.
I'm hopeful that when and if President Trump
settles down and gets his legs underneath him,
that he'll be proactive about this as opposed to
kicking the bar door down. In the past year, we've
seen three major mental health bills pass
—Addiction and Recovery Act, 21st Century Cures
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Act, and the final implementation of the Mental
Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act—and I'm
concerned about the freezing or suspending of
progress of this legislation. These bills were
bipartisan and included a lot of support across the
aisle for mental health. But there's still some hope
that the administration could take a different tack
on these issues when they announce the new
Assistant Secretary for Mental Health.
Patrick Kennedy | Google Impact Challenge: Disa...
You're advising a mental health startup called
Quartet. Can you tell us more about why
you're working with this company?
I think there's a real story in the fact that with all
the bad news coming down the pike on mental
health, there's an enterprise solution like Quartet.
The company is doing more mental health
identification and screening. The model really
focuses on showing the hard value proposition for
stakeholders providing access to mental health
treatment, and demonstrates real results on
patient outcomes. Quartet wants to show that
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improving access to mental health treatment isn't
a cost, but it's a savings.
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