WSJ: Mental Health Nears 'Parity' -- Bill Would Require Similar Coverage To Physical Illness

Wall Street Journal ^ | February 13, 2007 | JANE ZHANG

[OESY]

A decision by major insurance and business groups to support legislation requiring health insurers to treat mental illnesses the same way as physical ailments could mean better mental-health coverage, at least for many who already receive it.

A bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators -- Pete Domenici (R., N.M.), Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) -- doesn't mandate that group health plans cover mental illness. Instead, it requires that plans, if they cover both mental and physical illnesses, treat both with "parity," or similar benefits, such as deductibles, co-payments and treatment limitations. Employers with fewer than 50 workers would be exempted.

The measure marks a compromise reached after more than a year's negotiations among lawmakers, mental-health advocates, insurance companies and business groups. Supporters include America's Health Insurance Plans, the National Retail Federation and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also said it is "prepared to support" the legislation as introduced.

The endorsements, as well as the change to a Democratic-controlled Congress, brighten prospects for the long-stalled legislation. For 15 years, versions of the bill had passed the Senate and even the House, only to founder. Business and insurers opposed coverage mandates and said they were concerned about the rising health-care costs....

[muleskinner]

Someone should calculate the social costs of wandering crazies. I'll bet it is huge.

Not only in dollars. but the emotional whirlwind the wandering ones inflict on their immediate circle and family.
Combine bi-polar and alchoholism = A.M.E. Always Making Excuses. And as an adult, there is no legal recourse for forced treatment. No state mental hospitals anymore.

Anyone know of a treatment for both?

[ClaireSolt]

...and the treatment is only partially effective. Some families use tough love to force the issue, but there is no return for many.