Mental and Physical Health: Equalizing Coverage
When you or a loved one is battling depression or another mental illness, the last thing you should have to worry about is whether your insurance will cover your medical care.
For too long, people living with mental illnesses have been forced to suffer from discrimination. Insurers charge more to treat mental disorders than they do for physical illnesses -- and the treatment options are far more limited, or even nonexistent.
Such discriminatory coverage is unfair and must be stopped. Last week the U.S. Senate achieved a major breakthrough to eliminate this widespread form of discrimination from our nation's health care system. The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 requires health insurance companies to treat mental illnesses the same as physical ailments, allowing millions of Americans to get the care they need.
Mental illnesses can be just as devastating as physical illnesses, with far-reaching consequences for patients and their families. Insurance companies must make equal treatment available to those suffering from these conditions. The inability of a patient to obtain treatment for mental illness can mean years of shattered dreams and unfulfilled potential.
One in five Americans will face a mental illness sometime this year. The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 will protect 113 million Americans from unfair treatment limitations and unfair financial requirements imposed by group health plans. That means no limits on days or treatment visits, and no exorbitant co-payments or deductibles.
Ending our health care system's discrimination against the mentally ill makes sense for our nation and our economy. Mental illnesses cost the country an estimated $324 billion a year in treatment expenses, lost employee productivity, and crime. Making sure these patients get treatment to manage their illnesses will cut that number substantially and save our economy billions of dollars each year. Businesses will also obtain substantial savings, since study after study shows that employees with mental health problems have considerably higher overall health costs and lower productivity.
The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 was passed by the Senate with broad support by the health care community, business leaders, and the insurance industry. The strength and diversity of this coalition is a tribute to the importance of this issue, and it underscores our commitment to treat all patients facing all diseases with the dignity and respect they deserve.
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Single Payer System is the only answer get the Insurance Companies out of our Health Care system and save over 40% of the costs..and end this discrimination against mental illness and also those who are sick..Senator..!
Even those with Insurance who pay premiums are refused coverage often once they need it as you know Sir..!
Also let's Nationalize the America Oil Industry cut cost by over 30% and have $60 Billion for Technology development and alternate energy sources including maybe Fusion..
I was first hospitalized for depression at the age of 18. I'm 55 now, unemployed, uninsured, diagnosed as bipolar, on disability, and there is no way in hell that I can get health insurance. I believe that the bill presented here by Senator Kennedy is a good start, but only universal coverage will really do anything for people like me. My medications require nearly all of my disability benefits. Hospitalization of treatment in a clinic is financially impossible.
Oh yeah, and for you asswipes who simply wish to disparage Senator Kennedy and have completely ignored the subject at hand - YOU are the real problem. Those who have posted that this bill does little for people like me are correct and I do not include them with the Kennedy haters. The gentleman from Canada needs to remain in Canada I would say. You will get little, if any, help down here in the USA.
And let's not forget that Russ Feingold pushed this bill for years. And let's never forget that it is the republicans who work so diligently to maintain the status quo, keep the pharma companies happy which means lots of political contributions, keep millions of Americans with no chance of health coverage, keep millions of children from entering the system through the new SCHIPS legislation. It's blatantly obvious. They have theirs and they care nothing at all about the rest of us. 'Compassionate Conservatism' my ass!!!
Bravo Sen Ted Kennedy!
I've been writing about this for years on my blog. (see link below)
Achieving mental health coverage parity is not only the ethical and moral thing to do, it is the smart thing to do! It will defintely do a great deal to lower OTHER health care costs.
Then we take the next step. That is preventing a great deal-(NOT ALL-SOME ARE BIOLOGICAL)- of mental health "disorders" through elimination of poverty,healthy families,healthy schools, healthy communities,healthy workplaces and a healthy environment.
Senator-I applaud your persistance on advocating for mental health parity for decades.
Let me know if/how I can help you.
Dr. Rick Lippin
http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com
My husband who was bi polar took his life 6 weeks ago.At the time he was on 7 types of medicine and we were fighting for coverage.
And while we are on the topic,,,my 17 year daughter is not eligible for SCIP as I am not destitute enough...
We need government provided single payer health care
I'm a Canadian with Type 1 bipolar disorder. I was hospitalized in Toronto for a couple of months in 2004 and I haven't held a full-time job since 2003. My 2 month hospital stay was covered by the province of Ontario. How much $ would that have been had I been in the USA? After I was released, I moved back home to live with my parents. I get about $600/month from a federal government disability pension (I'm 37) and another $200/month from the province. Plus the province covers my pharmaceutical expenses. I have an opportunity to move to the USA to work and live with my brother, but I'm reluctant - there's no comparable social safety net down there, is there?
So does the FDA - should be removed. They continue to approve medications that either kill people
early or over a long drawn period of time. I always thought a medication should cure the ailment
not distort it or make it worse. My mistake,
this is capitalism at its best.
That dog biscuit called health care looks mighty good but I'm not going to chase it. Man does not live by bread alone, how about restoring the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to status quo ante Bush. We need warrants and audit trails on any government surveillance. Senator Kennedy, you and your clique seem to be ready to provide neither in your revision of FISA. If you fail to provide independent oversight you will be reviled in your community and have tarnished a great name: KENNEDY
Imagine, sir, how it feels to have been diagnosed with clinical depression & having a prescription for a medication that works only to lose your health insurance and not being able to afford it. To know that there is a drug that works for you but you can't have it & there's nothing you can do about it. Imagine further how it feels to seem that same symptoms appear in your child, knowing the black hole that is depression, and know that there's nothing you can do to help your child, even though you work 45 hours a week at two part-time jobs.
We need universal health coverage - NOT more "help" from the insurance companies.
This is a start, but as a mother of a bipolar non-working adult, I'd like to know how a person with a mental illness can get insurance if she can't work. Also, what is the senate going to do about the fact that doctors can refuse to accept types of insurance that they don't like because the payments aren't high enough?
My daughter has a minimal type of insurance through the state, but hello! virtually NO private practitioners will accept it. This means that for mental healthcare she must go to a low-cost clinic, where - I kid you not - the therapists are crazier than the patients. For other types of illness, she must either go to the local hospital emergency room or I must pay for care from a private doctor. Our constant fear is that the state insurance, bad as it is, will be withdrawn and I will have to pay for her medications.
What the hell is the senate doing to help American families?
Where's that drink again? BUUURP
Yeah, ok.
Like you can tell the insurance companies what to do... they are in control of society right now. AND, how excatly is "mental illness" defined? Anyone on antidepressants? 'Cause that's A LOT of Americans at present. It seems you can't step into ANY doctor's office without him/her trying to prescirbe some sort of a "happy" pill... whether you need it or not... because after all... THEY are working for the Pharma industry.
So now, we have doctors "diagnosing" and pushing for "mental illness" help pills and we have Insurance Companies denying coverage because of the label placed on people by doctors....often unnecessarily.
I think I'm the only person that has NOT taken any anti-depressants... although they have been offered to me by just about every doctor I've seen in the past 5 years... even when I went in for simple fatigue. It's ridiculous.
Depression happy pills.... some need them... but I believe it has become the opiate of amercan society.... and insurance companies are cashing in.
Insurance Co's need to be removed from the health care picture altogether.
When Bush and the Neo-cons say we cannot 'afford' healthcare, they are really saying that this is a low priority issue for them. The real Repub healthcare policy is to pimp medical services to the highest bidder. The working class just keep paying more for less.
Unfortunately, those with undiagnosed schizophrenia and bipolar disorder will not benefit... as they can't likely hold down a job that provides them with health insurance. I am skeptical at best about this act, any time the insurance companies support something I feel the need to read the fine-print.
This is one step, but now we need universal health care coverage to ensure that all Americans with mental health issues are treated.
You'd better believe people better read the fine print... Insurance Co's support MUST mean bad for Americans.... as it has in the past few years. It's a corporation folks... they HAVE TO make money to keep their investors happy.
Thank you Senator Kennedy. For too many years, I have seen how depression can ruin lives if not properly treated. I hope the "parity" bill does not allow insurance industries to only provide equal coverage if you go to a physican who is in the insurance company's network of "prefered providers".
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