[throwaway2037]

Why was this downvoted? You raised an important issue. Does this mean the health plan has terrible mental health coverage? I guess so. (It would be great if someone who works for Apollo care share details about your mental health coverage.)

When I worked in the US, my health plans had pretty good mental health coverage. You could spend 1,000s of USD per year for psychotherapy / counseling with zero-to-minor co-pays. If you required medication (prescribed by a psychiatrist), that was also well-covered with zero-to-minor co-pays. I remember specifically that mental health care had "higher coverage" because therapists were rarely part of the insurance company's network. You paid the health professional directly, then require reimbursement from health plan. (Yes, I know this isn't true for all health plans.)

To hire an experienced mental health professional in SF Bay Area, I guess the rate is 100 to 200 USD/hour. Most will have sliding scales, but that will not apply to well-paid engineers.

[suchire]

At least for Kaiser Permanente in the SF Bay Area, which is one of the biggest healthcare providers, they are notoriously bad at covering and providing mental health services

[dancrumb]

It's worth noting that a lot of therapists (especially solo or small-practice therapists) don't take any insurance at all, which makes visits de facto out-of-network.

Folks on an HDHP or who don't get through their deductible most years would probably end up spending most, if not all, of this out of pocket. Even if they would get something back they have to do all the dealing with the insurer.. and that's assuming that they understand superbills and all the BS that insurance companies make you wade through...

In short, $300 just clears all of this out of the way. You go; you get reimbursed for the visit; you get to decide what to do next.