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People who seek mental health care are having a hard time finding somebody to take their insurance. New data show about a third of psychologists do not deal with insurance at all. NPR's Katia Riddle reports.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: There are two big reasons that psychologists cite for their increasing reluctance to take insurance, money and time. Julie Bindeman (ph) is a licensed psychologist in Maryland. She says she did take insurance for a few years.
JULIE BINDEMAN: In that period, I got a 9-cent raise. I was making half of what I would charge fee for service.
RIDDLE: She said she would've had to see double the number of insured clients to make the same amount of money.
BINDEMAN: And at that point in time, I had just had my second child, and it just wasn't going to be sustainable.
RIDDLE: Marnie Shanbhag is with the American Psychological Association. That's the organization that conducted this survey of over 800 psychologists.
MARNIE SHANBHAG: We want to take insurance. We really do want to serve people of all sizes, in terms of their wallets.
RIDDLE: Shanbhag points out that psychology is a helping profession. Most people who go into it, she says, are not doing it for the money. Another finding of this research? Demand for mental health care is not letting up post-pandemic.
SHANBHAG: We're seeing that people are still coming in sicker, meaning their symptom severity is higher. And we're also seeing that we're needing to see them for longer so that there's a longer duration of treatment.
RIDDLE: The pandemic stressed people out, she says, but it also helped to ease the stigma around mental health. She thinks people are more comfortable saying they need help, but it's not any easier to find help.
Katia Riddle, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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