 |
About
Mental Health Parity
What’s the
current situation with mental health coverage? read more about
parity
Right now, most people in this country who have
health insurance face severe restrictions on their mental health
benefits, especially compared to their ‘physical’ health
benefits. Insurance routinely sets strict annual limits on the number of covered
office visits and length of hospital stays – regardless of medical need – and
charges far higher out-of-pocket payments than for other medical care. These
restrictions have dire consequences for many American kids and adults. Read these
real life examples:
- "The lack of parity has caused
serious financial hardship, and may eventually render me homeless,
and
cost me my job...My difficulty is that
to stay functioning, employed, and off disability, I need to spend about
$5000 a year for medical care out of pocket despite the fact
that my employer provides
health insurance."
- "Two years ago my son had a head injury
and he got the care of the best pediatric neurologist in the
state's best trauma
unit. Everything
was covered by insurance. Shortly after that he started exhibiting psychotic
symptoms
and now more than a year later has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder
by a psychiatrist. After a trying six months of testing and visits we were
told our
maximum benefits had been used up and insurance would not pay anything
for
18 months. We were shocked that doctor-provided care could be denied just
because it is a mental illness."
- A nurse with a history
of depression and multiple suicide attempts who improved markedly
with treatment has employer-provided insurance that
limits coverage to 75 lifetime mental health visits. She described the fast-approaching
lifetime cap as a “death sentence,” and said, “without
treatment I feel I will die. I don’t understand the limits on mental
health benefits, it would seem they would want to continue the benefits
so I can
continue
working and contribute to society.”
- “My wonderful 16-year old son, Mark, who inherited my manic depressive
genes, is not here anymore. He came home from school early on Valentine’s
Day and hung himself in his bedroom closet. Several months before his
suicide the insurance we had stopped coverage of his mental health
benefits.”
These real life stories are just the tip of the iceberg of
all the Americans with mental health problems who cannot get
help because of this discrimination
in healthcare coverage, and who are left to suffer.
What’s the solution?
Legislation currently before Congress would
require health insurance to treat mental illness like any other
illness. That legislation, to
achieve “mental
health parity,” would help people get needed care. However, Congressional
leaders have blocked the “Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment
Act” (S. 486 and H.R. 953) from coming up for a vote, despite strong
bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress supporting the bill
and endorsements from
360 diverse national organizations.
Who opposes parity?
Foes of the parity bill – mostly the insurance industry – and
those who swallow their line are basing their opposition to the bill
on the following
myths and falsehoods:
FALSEHOOD #1 Parity would be costly, and would force
employers to drop all healthcare insurance for their employees.
TRUTH: This claim is baseless. Parity is not a new
or untested concept. Some people already have the protection that
a parity law would provide,
and in
every instance that protection has come WITHOUT any significant increase
in costs.
Members of Congress, for example, enjoy the benefits of mental health
parity under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. A number
of states
have enacted parity laws. And several large employers have voluntarily
provided
parity protection under their health-benefit plans. While there is
no credible data
to support the claim that parity would be costly, the incessant repetition
of this “big lie” keeps it alive. The truth is that the
failure to provide people needed mental health care – often
because of insurance barriers – is
what is really costly. Those costs amount to approximately $100 BILLION
annually in lost productivity alone.
FALSEHOOD #2 A parity law
would force employers and insurance companies to pay for care
for people “like Woody Allen,” and drive
up health care costs.
TRUTH: This claim is completely false. Under this
law, insurance companies will still be able to limit coverage to
what they determine
to be “medically
necessary care.” But, they’re using scare tactics and
ridiculing people with mental health needs in their efforts to
kill this legislation.
What can you do?
What this issue needs is visibility. In recent
polls, the vast majority of Americans stated their support for
the concept of
parity, but
this legislation is not on
their radar screen nor Congress’. We need your help to
generate a public outcry about this discrimination and force
movement on this
bill.
Parity
is not a cure-all, but passage of this legislation will make
a historic statement about
the validity of mental illness and its treatments, and give kids
and adults with mental illnesses a fighting chance to enjoy fuller,
healthier
lives.
|
