2025 SOA ImpACT Conference Virtual:Session 3D: Behavioral Health: The Next Big Healthcare Crisis?-12.03.25 Recording

Today, 90% of all Americans think that there is a behavioral health crisis in the United States. Commonly cited concerns include the opioid epidemic, mental health issues in children and teenagers, and severe mental illness. This raises several questions: - What do we (plan sponsors, policymakers, and other stakeholders) need to understand the crisis better? This includes a better understanding of the biological, psychological, and social factors underlying a person's mental health and the underlying infrastructure, which may present barriers to care. - What solutions are needed to make the situation better? No doubt, innovation will play a key role in finding solutions, but ideally, these solutions will align stakeholder objectives, reduce the total cost of care, foster transparency, and encourage competition among providers and sponsors. - What is the cost of those solutions? Typically, the cost of care includes not only the net costs (administrative costs offset by savings) but also other benefits, like enhanced quality of life. In this session, the presenters will discuss these questions with an emphasis on day-to-day actuarial practice.