Instigator / Pro
3
1469
rating
2
debates
0.0%
won
Topic
#4099

Essential mental health services should be free

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
0
12
Better sources
2
8
Better legibility
1
4
Better conduct
0
4

After 4 votes and with 25 points ahead, the winner is...

Public-Choice
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
3
Time for argument
Two days
Max argument characters
5,000
Voting period
One week
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
28
1589
rating
18
debates
69.44%
won
Description

I'm restarting this debate because it looked interesting, and the last instigator had to ditch the debate. I'll recycle some starting definitions from that discourse and modify some others.

mental health (noun): a person’s condition with regard to their psychological, emotional, and social well-being
services (noun): a) the work performed by one that serves, or c) contribution to the welfare of others -- the most useful M&W definitions for this context
free (adjective): not costing or charging anything
essential (adjective): of the utmost importance

A more contextually useful definition of essential health services might be: "health services that seek to treat a mental condition that dramatically reduces a patient's quality of life and/or services that are necessary to prevent that patient from experiencing a breakdown, or a period of self-harm or suicidality."

Feel free to amend that definition if you think you can make it more concise and workable.

In this context, free will specifically refer to the cost to the person receiving mental health services. The pro position is not arguing that mental health services should cost nothing to anybody.

Round 1
Pro
#1
Forfeited
Con
#2
Thanks for letting me debate. I am hoping to have a stimulating debate on whether mental health services should be free.

INTRODUCTION:

There is a pandemic of mental health right now globally, which particularly affects young people the most.

As the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Gallup Polling found:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 41.5% of U.S. adults exhibited symptoms of anxiety or depression in early 2021. Globally, seven in 10 people report that they are struggling or suffering, according to Gallup. [1]

At the forefront of this pandemic are psychiatrists who have the highest suicide rate of any profession. [2] 

And I will conclusively prove that making mental health services free will reinstitute mass slavery, which is not beneficial to mental health.

A1 MAKING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES RE-INSTITUTES MASS SLAVERY

PRO would likely wish users forget that, in order to receive mental health services, it requires the psychiatrist, psychologist, medical doctors, pharmacist, and pharmaceutical companies to work for free, since the definition of free from the debate description is:

not costing or charging anything
This constitutes equivalence with slavery, since, in order for mental health services to be free, this requires mental health professionals to work (or else there would be no mental health services) and it also requires they work at no cost or charge.

Therefore, they are forced to work for no pay, which is slavery, as defined by Merriam-Webster:

the state of a person who is held in forced servitude

These mental health professionals cannot receive any payment of any kind, and therefore are forced into servitude for a job that gives them nothing.

But it isn't just mental health professionals who are forced into slavery. It is also pharmacists, who must dispense the prescriptions without charging anything, and the pharmaceutical companies and employees who must also create the prescriptions without charging anything. The whole entire industry must be forced to work in servitude to the general public completely for free.

This amounts to hundreds of millions of employees who are now forced into slavery, since they must continue their services without cost or charge in order for mental health services to exist.

Now. Some may wonder why the government cannot pay through taxes. Because the constitutes a cost for the services. Doctors must charge the federal government for the services in order to receive payment. But since the debate definition explicitly forbids both charging and costs, there is no possible way for these service providers to receive a payment, because they cannot charge or even have a price or cost.

So this creates mass slavery.

A2 FREE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES WILL CAUSE AN INCREASE IN SUICIDES

Psychiatrists already have the highest suicide rate of any profession. If we instantly make them slaves by removing their payments for their services, this will compound the issue.

Psychiatrists are in immense amounts of debt from attending college. They also have payments on their cars, houses, and need to eat, buy necessary things, and more. [5]

When this group of people is suddenly forced, against their will to be broke for the test of their lives, since they can't receive any sort of reimbursement, even welfare, because it would constitute a payment, it will cause depression.

Debt is one of the highest causes of extreme depression, as the Royal College of Psychologists states:

How being in debt can make you feel

That everything is out of control and there is nothing you, or anyone else, can do about it.

Hopeless, especially if your debt is getting worse.

Embarrassed to talk to anyone about your financial situation.

Guilty - that the problem is your fault, even though it's been caused by your mental or physical health problems.

Depressed and anxious. [3]

Depression, anxiety, and financial problems are the leading causes of suicide, as the World Health Organization states:

While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established in high-income countries, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-up or chronic pain and illness. [4]

CONCLUSION:

Forcing mental health services to be free would immediately result in mass slavery and suicides. Since debt and depression and anxiety are all major causes of suicide, this would cause a massive uptick in suicides for the entire mental health profession, from pharmaceutical employees to psychiatrists and pharmacists, who must now all be forced to work for free.

SOURCES:




Round 2
Pro
#3
Forfeited
Con
#4
PRO has forfeited, vote CON.
Round 3
Pro
#5
Forfeited
Con
#6
Full forfeiture from PRO. Vote VON.