Cox News Service
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A wonderful thing happened on the way to
bail out Wall Street: Mental health parity finally became the law
of the land.
While Washington quarreled over $700 billion and Sarah Palin
gave a shout-out to a bunch of third-graders, a handful of
lawmakers quietly piggybacked a controversial mental health bill
onto the bailout package.
As of Jan. 1, 2010, employer-sponsored health insurance policies
must offer the same coverage for mental illness as they do for
physical illnesses. That means no more higher co-pays and
deductibles, and no more limited number of office visits and days
in the hospital unless the same restrictions apply to physical
ailments.
It means 113 million Americans with insurance coverage can get
well if they get sick, physically or mentally. It means mental
illness is real despite decades of discriminatory health insurance
policies.
I never understood how insurance companies and employers got
away with it for so long. Depression -- not heart disease, diabetes
or cancer -- is the No. 1 workplace disability in the United
States. If you missed work because of one of those physical
illnesses your health insurance would cover treatment.
When it comes to mental illness, the Government Accounting
Office estimates that 90 percent of plans charge higher
co-payments, co-insurance, deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket
limits and impose lower limits on hospital stays and doctor visits.
Most folks don't realize this until they need the coverage. By that
time they are too consumed in the illness to write to their
lawmakers.
Mental health insurance discrimination has been around for so
long that we came to believe that there is nothing wrong with it.
We didn't even recognize it. It is just the way the insurance
companies do business, right? That attitude is what drives the
stigma against mental illness.
Thankfully, some of the biggest names in Washington saw this.
Unfortunately, for some, it is because they have been personally
touched by these illnesses. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico has a
daughter with schizophrenia. U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode
Island has depression and alcoholism. They wondered why their own
health care plans covered mental illness but the plans of private
companies did not.
It has been a 20-year battle. Insurance companies and business
groups claimed parity would drive up the cost of coverage. But the
Congressional Budget Office found that parity would increase
premiums an average of two-tenths of 1 percent.
Maybe it took a distraction as big as the bailout to finally get
the parity bill passed. Who knows? But if all the depressing
financial news makes us sick, physically or mentally, we can at
least take comfort in knowing our insurance will cover both. Let's
hope we don't need it.
Christine Stapleton writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail:
cstapleton AT pbpost.com. To read previous columns, go to
PalmBeachPost.com/depression