It’s too soon to know what drove Adam Lanza to massacre 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. But early signs suggest that serious mental illness played a role. If so, that — alongside another arsenal — would be a thread connecting last week’s atrocity with the recent mass killings in Aurora, Colo.; Phoenix; and Blacksburg, Va.
Since Friday, a wave of outrage and a renewed desire for gun-control laws have swept the country, including Washington. “Enough is enough,” Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat with an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, said on Monday. “I think most of us realize that there are ways to get to rational gun control.”
Comments
Mr. Green is correct in pointing out the importance of Medicaid in addressing the mental health issues of the country's low income population and it is irresponsible of any state government to refuse to maximize that assistance. However, I wonder just how many of our "mass killers" (and they are ours) would have been eligible to receive mental health treatment through medicaid? I suspect that many, if not all, are from more financially secure backgrounds. Mental health clearly plays a role in these massacres, but mass killings in this country do not seem to emanate from the mentally ill poor.
You bring up an important point. Private insurers are not paying for needed mental health treatments and haven't for some time. Those who are on Medicaid have the best access. It's ironic, but it's market-driven healthcare. One more reason why a national health service is needed.
Mr. Green, thank you so much for this piece. The general public has no idea what Washington's policies can do and not do in our society. This is a great example of what cuts can mean to all of us. We had the deinstitutionalizing of the mentally ill in the 70's. In the 90's health insurers' "managed care" initiatives decimated therapy availabilities to the mentally ill. Medicaid has been so pivotal for many families since then. This is one area in which policies have altered families lives completely. We all want to assist families with their mentally ill children, we just don't want to pay for it. We Americans need to wake up to what the real cost of living in a free and safe country is.
Having access to mental health care is only part of it. Guarantees for mental health coverage are important, but for those individuals with conditions where violence and the potential for violence are known risks compliance (i.e., taking their medication) is as much a problem as whether or not they have access to it. Loughner was forced by court order to take anti-psychotic meds so as to be competent to stand trial. If he could have been forced into an evaluation and medication while he was acting out in high school and in his community college classes he might never have committed a crime.
Joshua Lies here when he says "Even absent the mandate, the law offers powerful financial incentives to go along, with the federal government paying the full cost of new Medicaid enrollees for the first three years and 90 percent thereafter."--here's a link to the actual law... The Affordable care Act 2209 pages PDF http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/authorities/patient-protection.pdf HERE's the Law, Joshua. Kindly POINT OUT the passages in the Law that back up your statements. The governors know and the Globe knows that the Medicaid exchanges will soon become a BAD DEAL for states because of the Federal "Maintenance of Effort" rules . The states will get "free money" only for one year. Then they will pay, and pay, and PAY. Perhaps Joshua should explain to the readers how much money ObamaCare is going to cost MA residents. The Globe has already urged Republican Governors in other states to spend their resources on establishing exchanges. This article is another one, using a new excuse.