The LA Dodgers baseball organization re-signed former outfielder Andrew Toles in March 2023.
Andrew Toles Batting Practice 2016
Attribution: Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, NJ, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons;. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2016-10-22_Andrew_Toles_batting_practice.jpg
LA Dodgers have been signing Andrew Toles to a one-year contract every year since 2019 season in order to provide him access to health insurance.
What makes this poignant is because Toles has been dealing with bipolar and schizophrenia diagnosis for several years. LA Dodgers will not pay Andrew Toles any money for the 2023 season, nevertheless, it is laudable that an organization keeps its player on its roster just so that he can have access to medical insurance and mental health services.
While schizophrenia affects slightly less than 1% of population (about 24 million people globally in 2022), it is a very challenging disease with significant health and social impact making it one of 15 leading causes of disability. It also significantly affects mortality.
Workplace, Insurance and Mental Health
- According to U.S. Government Accountability Office 2022 report, even though 91% of Americans are covered by insurance, coverage does not guarantee treatment when it comes to mental Health. The challenges are because of several factors – lack of mental health worker talent which leads to limited access to in-network providers, approval of mental health treatment stymied by complex processes used by health plans, low reimbursement rates for mental health service providers among others.
- As a result, advocacy group Mental Health America estimated that in 2021, 54 percent of consumers covered by a health plan were not able to receive the mental health treatment they required.
- Additionally Mental Health America estimates that 11.1% Percent (5.5 million people) of US Adults with Mental Illness are Uninsured.
- Mind Share Partners’ 2021 Mental Health at Work Report in partnership with Qualtrics and ServiceNow estimates that 50% of US workers have left a previous role, partly because of mental health reasons (up from 34% in 2019).
While there has been positive movement in corporate America to recognize and support mental health for their employees, we still have a long way to go to make it consistent and equitable across the country.
March 2023