Why is mental health insurance coverage often more complicated?

Health insurance coverage is complicated for traditional medical conditions, but it's even worse for mental and behavioral health. Historically, there was not much thought given to mental health, and there was a lot of stigma surrounding it. We have come a long way, and various federal laws require that insurance companies cover mental health and substance abuse disorders at a comparable level to medical and surgical benefits.

However, we find that in addition to a shortage of mental and behavioral health providers, many of them are covered at the "out of network" level. This results in limited options and long waits. It is also not uncommon for insurance companies to only approve certain types of mental health treatments, and navigating it can get confusing (what is outpatient vs. intensive outpatient? What exactly is mental health vs. behavioral health?)

There is also a wide range of mental health providers (MDs, DOs, PhDs, NPs, PAs, LCPs, LCSWs, etc.), and it can get really confusing to figure out who is appropriate for your needs. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has a helpful cheat sheet
to help you understand that part.