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....

[OESY]

Ever wonder why healthcare has become so expensive? Think mandates (or, to be politically-correct, "parity") to pay for private (mental) trainers for liberals. As Seinfeld pointed out, everyone in New York has his/her own psycho-therapist--another reason why we here in this state are in such bad straits.

.

[Thrownatbirth]

But if you're an alcoholic, you still get yelled at.

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563271/posts
Healthy People 2010

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1574836/posts
The UN Plan for Your Mental Health (UNESCO)

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Government should not mandate any coverage. Let people decide what they want to pay for.

[ClaireSolt]

Abuse of alcohol rehab coverage in the 80's was a big problem. At a minimum, yelling at alcoholics is a good idea. anything to get their attention.

[Thrownatbirth]

yelling at alcoholics is a good idea

Can't argue success. :-)

[Kozak]

Abuse of alcohol rehab coverage in the 80's was a big problem.

It still is. We run a revolving door for detox in the ER where people get admitted over and over and over and over. The waste is enormous.

[Kozak]

To see how great a problem this is going to be look up the DSM IV ( the manual used by psychiatrists to categorize illness)on line and look at all the things that qualify as "mental illness". Most of which are not curable.

http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html

[wodinoneeye]

Gold Rush will begin after this kind of Scammers Paradise opens....


Leftards make me 'Nervous'. So I will find a specialist to proscribe long government paid-for (taxpayer...) vacations in pleasant locations as a treatment for my condition.


These big government idiots should be beaten with rods and driven into the sea.....

[JaguarXKE]

Ever wonder why healthcare has become so expensive? Think mandates (or, to be politically-correct, "parity") to pay for private (mental) trainers for liberals. As Seinfeld pointed out, everyone in New York has his/her own psycho-therapist--another reason why we here in this state are in such bad straits.

As a long time Freeper, and retired career officer, I would encourage you to visit www.NAMI.org and educate yourself about mental illness. I have two sons; one is perfectly healthy - an Air Force pilot flying missions over Iraq. The other son is struggling with Bi-Polar disorder, which is a very real brain disorder caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Because he is over 23 and no longer on my company insurance, we pay over $300 per month for private insurance for him.

I teach Family-to-Family through the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI). Family-to-Family is a program to help families with loved ones suffering from mental illness cope with the tremendous burden that mental illness places on those who suffer as well as their families.

We now know that brain disorders like Bi-Polar and Schizophrenia are very real and are caused by measurable physical differences in the brain. Twenty years ago we thought people who suffered from mental illness just had a bad upbringing, or some character flaw; we now know that is not the case.

Do some people overuse the term “mental illness?” Yes, and that is too bad because it results in glib comments by people like Mr Seinfeld and masks the fact that there really is a thing called mental illness and its as real as any other physical illness. The fact is, brain disorders are very real and when one strikes your family as it has ours, it is one of the most devastating things you can imagine – and trust me, seeing a son struggle with this and knowing that he will never accomplish what his older brother has, is not a laughing matter. Unfortunately, society still treats brain disorders as a joke and those who suffer brain disorders are treated as if they really don’t have anything wrong with them. One of the reasons Sen Dominici is interested in this topic is that he has a daughter who suffers with mental illness.

Regards,
Jag

[maryz]

Too many of the things that qualify as "mental illness" depend only upon what the person says. I understand, on the physical side, back pain is similar -- too many cases of severe pain without an identifiable physical cause.

I read a book once (I think it was by a psychiatrist) that pointed out the rarity of malpractice suits against mental health workers. The author said it was because there was no standard of care, no consistent diagnoses, no standard time for cure or improvement, nothing you could point to to prove care was substandard.

Personally, I'd rather be jailed (or shot!) than be subjected to "mental health care" -- but lots of people seem to like it. Don't know why . . . no one else wants to talk to them (or listen to them) maybe?

[OESY]

My wife has primary-progressive multiple sclerosis. She is in the last year of her life. I don't take that as a joke. I love her. But I don't feel that every person nor every business owner should be required by law to buy insurance they don't need and don't want. We have assets. People less well off shouldn't be required to subsidize us--either in higher insurance premiums or in the loss of their jobs because the business owner can no longer afford them, IMHO.

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[ClaireSolt]

NAMI is a good organization, imho. However, I saw it and others testify before a cong committee and claim that they were cured. To me, that is a travesty. Although antipsychotic meds administered in crisis setting have some benefit, they are overrated. The fiction that relapse is just people off their meds perpetuates the scandal that some who cannot cope just walk the streets. More and more I see all this health care push as a subsidy for the highest paid profession using patients as their meal tickets.

Not too long ago a woman who seemed out of it approached me in a gas station offering to sell me two beers. As I visited with her she showed me her meds in a bag and told me she lived on $500/mo plus subsidized housing. She wanted money to buy shampoo. I gave her a $20 and muttered a little prayer. Thank God my meds work better than hers. Someone should calculate the social costs of wandering crazies. I'll bet it is huge.

[wildbill]

Do you know anyone who has 'mental health' problems? If you accept the standards of psychiatry as the basis for rating, then almost everyone you know needs treatment.

Kinda like taking one drink a day makes you an alcoholic according to AA.

Under the Law of Unintended Results, I predict that if this 'parity' law passes, insurors will withdraw their limited mental health coverage entirely--with a sigh of relief.

[OESY]

I regret that in my response I may have come across as insensitive to your son's bipolar problem. I am not against treatment for mental health disorders. While I have not yet visited the NAMI, I shall do so soon.

I dwell upon our situation because it is what I know and experience everyday. My wife is totally dependent for everything. Similar to Alzheimer's, she not only cannot use her PC, telephone or TV remote, but often cannot get to the bathroom in time. She rarely says a word that I can understand. My questions don't register anymore.

It is tragic for someone who has a Ph.D., two masters, was chief physical therapist at New York Hospital, ran her own private practice for 25 years, was an expert witness in malpractice cases, was on the state board of licensure for PTs, and served as chair of the board of trustees of a local hospital for nine years. We are now in our twilight years.

We worked during our careers to have money in case we developed health problems. We bought the insurance we needed. Everyone should have a similar right. But that's our situation. I thought you should know before assuming the worst about us.

.

[yankeedame]

With all due respect the condition of your younger son should be labeled as a medical condition of the brain, and treated as such; as one might treat a medical condition of the liver, the kidney, etc.

Frankly, state hospitals should be reopened and updated to take care of those whose conditions defy current out-patient treatment. Nothing shocking -- or disgraceful -- about this. The same takes place in and with nursing homes for those with more conventional medical disabilities. Again, I emphasis that it should be treated as a medical disability of the brain.

Unfortunately the term "mental illness" is a large, and growing larger, blanket used to cover a multitude of emotion based self DX "conditions". And there lies its greatest venerability -- if you have your gall bladder taken out it can only be claimed against the companies insurance once, but when you can claim a "nervous breakdown" time after time after time then the door to fraud has swung wide open.

[JaguarXKE]

With all due respect the condition of your younger son should be labeled as a medical condition of the brain, and treated as such;

I agree! and that's my point! Many mental illnesses (Bi-Polar, schizophrenia, etc.) are in fact very real physical brain disorders that are called "mental illness" and are not afforded the same consideration as so-called "real" illnesses.

Unfortunately the term "mental illness" is a large, and growing larger, blanket used to cover a multitude of emotion based self DX "conditions".

I agree and that is a problem.

[booann777]

Well said. Thank you.

[joylyn]

The trouble is that the very people who want to expand coverage for mental illness are often the same ones who tell us that 20% of the population (at any one time) suffers from a psychological disorder.

I agree that we don't do enough for those who suffer from serious mental illness. The states abdicated their historical committment in the 70's when anti-psychotic drugs came on the scene -- hospitals were closed, and nothing much took their place.

I just don't want to pay the cost of therapy for a lot of people who think that unhappiness in any form is a mental disorder.