Mental Health Parity

As I sit here typing this the House of Representatives is voting on the revised "Bailout" bill. The most important feature of this bill as far as I am concerned is something that has not gotten much press and has nothing to do with the credit crisis. Since the Senate can not technically open new spending legislation, the way that they brought this bill to the floor and voted on it the other day was by dusting off an existing piece of legislation and adding all the bailout language to it. The bill that they chose to use was a measure that the late Paul Wellstone (MN) worked long and hard on, equal coverage for mental health and behavioral treatments.

Most people do not know that if you have insurance that is employer provided (which is what most of us have) that the amount of coverage you received for psychiatrist, psychologists, drug treatment or in-patient stays for mental health reasons was far less than if you are seeking treatment for a physical ailment.

The bill just passed and is now awaiting the President's signature!!

I happen to have a family member with a mental illness and I have been active in our local NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) chapter. To me and anyone affected by mental illness this is a huge development. Dealing with a mental illness or addiction in ones family is hard enough due to the nature of these problems and the social stigma attached to them. To have the added problem of a financial burden imposed upon the family is just salt in the wound. The medical establishment has long insisted that these are medical problems no different than diabetes, cancer or heart disease. It is high time that the insurance companies begin paying for them as if that is the case.

I am not thrilled with the bailout plan, but it was obvious that something had to be done in order to shore up the credit markets. I thank God that in order to do that this mental health bill was used.