Written by Ansh Patel
For many years, mental illness has been among the most severe health issues plaguing American society. Only recently has the stigma and pseudoscience surround mental health diminished, allowing society to truly recognize the widespread crisis it brings. Today, about 20% of Americans aged 18 and up – over 55 million people – suffer from some sort of mental illness (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2023). Anxiety, depression, stress, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and countless other ailments affect millions of Americans every day. It makes it impossible for them to live, work, and interact with others positively and productively, hurting them, their families, and their communities. Mental illnesses have reared their ugly heads in the form of everything from crime, substance abuse, and behavioral issues to homelessness, unemployment, and social/familial alienation.
Making matters worse, the American healthcare system is woefully underprepared to solve these problems. There are not nearly enough providers and facilities for everyone. Only about half of urban and suburban adults even receive treatment for their mental illnesses. The number is even lower for rural adults (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2023). Overall, the American mental health crisis presents a monolith of interconnected public health and social issues with broad consequences. The mental health crisis the US currently faces isn’t just a public health emergency—it’s also an economic burden, limiting productivity and bringing all manner of indirect costs. Addressing mental health is both a moral imperative and an economic necessity.
The primary reason the mental health crisis hurts the US economy is because it is most prevalent among those who make our economy functional in the first place: the workers. Workers are responsible for the lion’s share of any economy’s productivity and functionality. Without them, the economy flatlines. These days, American workers are struggling with the weight of mental illness, with 75% of them (according to recent surveys) dealing with some sort of mental health challenge in the past year while nearly 40% struggle with mental health issues often. This phenomenon is even more visible among younger workers. A staggering 91% of Gen Z workers in the US have grappled with mental health challenges in the past year, while 62% deal with mental illness often (U.S. Workers Facing Increasing Mental Health Challenges, 2024).
This issue is exacerbated by the fact that these workers, like many Americans, don’t have access to the care required to help them manage or even cure their mental ailments. This is due to not only the inadequacies of the American healthcare system mentioned before but also the lack of assistance many US employers provide to their employees in this area. 89% of employees have at least some desire for their employers to provide benefits that help alleviate their mental health struggles, be it mental health off-days, assistance with paying treatment bills, or facilitating connections with providers (U.S. Workers Facing Increasing Mental Health Challenges, 2024).
Providing such assistance is in the direct interest of not only the workers but also the employers themselves. Studies have shown that mental health struggles left unattended are associated with decreased workplace productivity as well as increased absenteeism (not showing up to work) or presenteeism (showing up to work while unwell). Employees struggling with mental health issues also are much less likely to remain with any employer for long (U.S. Workers Facing Increasing Mental Health Challenges, 2024). Bad mental health among workers results in an unproductive, turmoil-filled workplace, which is bad for business and the US economy as a whole.
Recent research has shown that untreated mental illness among Americans, namely workers, will cost the US economy approximately $477.5 billion as of 2024. As of 2040, it will have cost the US economy a total of nearly $14 trillion. These costs are associated with the costs of treating the surface health conditions, other medical bills, and the loss of workplace productivity due to worker unemployment, absenteeism, and presenteeism, all of which directly result from untreated mental illness, especially among American workers (Dawes et al., 2024). To put this in simpler terms, the mental health crisis, on average, costs America about $282 billion a year. This is 1.7% of America’s total GDP, or the yearly costs of an average economic recession (Abramson, 2024). Such is the severity of the economic ramifications of this crisis. The mental health crisis we as Americans face, left largely untouched, is devastating us, in terms of both health and wealth. The American people, especially American workers, are being deeply hurt by this crisis and the costs it brings. Rapid, comprehensive change in how we approach and solve this problem is needed, from both an economic and public health perspective. In this way, we as a society can ensure that America and all who reside in it enjoy a happy, healthy, and prosperous life.
So how can the US tackle mental health? It will require an unprecedented influx of resources from American healthcare providers, employers, and government organizations. All who need care must be able to get it. We need to raise the instruction and standards of both detection and care of mental health illnesses in our healthcare system, better preparing our physicians to help those in need. Employers can help subsidize or fully cover mental illness care for their employees. The government can take various actions, from holding insurance providers accountable to expanding mental healthcare coverage to enhancing mental illness research and fully leveraging Medicaid to detect, diagnose, and treat mental illnesses (Frank et al., 2023).
Candidly, these options are all costly. However, they are more than worth it, for their costs are far outweighed by the seemingly endless public health and economic costs mentioned before that mental illness exacts regularly in the US. Paying now secures a robust and promising future for all Americans, workers and otherwise. It ensures a happier, healthier, and more productive population. The mental health crisis in the US is a real problem, especially among American workers, and taking care of it now is the key to unlocking the full potential of both ourselves as people and our economy.
References
Abramson, B. (2024, October 18). The $282 Billion Toll: Quantifying the Economic Impact of Mental Illness | Columbia Business School. Columbia Business School. https://business.columbia.edu/research-brief/economic-impact-mental-illness
Dawes, D., Bhatt, J., Dunlap, N., Amador, C., Gebreyes, K., & Rush, B. (2024, May 15). The projected costs and economic impact of mental health inequities in the United States. Deloitte Insights. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/economic-burden-mental-health-inequities.html
Fawaz, S. (2022). After plummeting during the pandemic, American manufacturing jobs are roaring back. In Labor 411.
Frank, R., Glied, S., O’Brien, J., & Wachino, V. (2023, July 11). Four Actions the Federal Government Can Take to Address Mental Health in the U.S. Www.commonwealthfund.org. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2023/four-actions-federal-government-can-take-address-mental-health-us
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2023, April). Mental health by the numbers. National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://www.nami.org/about-mental-illness/mental-health-by-the-numbers/
U.S. Workers Facing Increasing Mental Health Challenges. (2024). Limra.com. https://www.limra.com/en/newsroom/industry-trends/2024/u.s.-workers-facing-increasing-mental-health-challenges/