Wellstone-Domenici Act
I guess I was living under a rock back in October, because I completely missed the passage of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/parity_finalpassage/?refid=0
This is a great thing. For anyone who has ever had to go for counseling at any time in your life, you have probably experienced insurance companies' stubbornness about paying for mental health services. If you're not cured after three months, too bad for you. You say your child died in a tragic accident four months ago, and you've been in therapy ever since? Get over it! Or shell out your own money for additional therapy sessions if you need them, because the insurance company really doesn't want to hear you whine anymore. You've reached the limits of your coverage. Too bad.
I'm exaggerating, but not as much as you think. When I was in therapy, I remember my therapist having extended negotiations with my insurance company every few months. We even reduced the frequency of our sessions so that I could stretch my covered sessions out and have less out-of-pocket costs - possibly not the best thing for me in terms of mental health, but economically necessary at the time.
And listen, I wasn't dealing with anything too severe, on the scale of mental illnesses. I wasn't bipolar, schizophrenic or anorexic. I feel sorry for people who have to deal with these horrible conditions in their loved ones. The insurance companies really do not want to know. They effectively snap at these patients "Just learn to control yourself," and then turn around and subsidize triple-bypass surgeries and Viagra for upper-middle-class men in their fifties. It makes me angry. As far as I know, no one says to Mr. and Mrs. Plushbottom, "Hey, you obviously brought this heart attack on yourself due to your unhealthy lifestyle, so we're not going to cover your treatment for heart disease. Suck it up."
Yes, heart disease is life-threatening, while insurance companies seem to think that mental illnesses are not. But I will say this: If you think untreated bipolar disease is not life-threatening, you are woefully uninformed. You have never heard what stupid things people in a bad manic state are capable of ("I can fly! Watch me!"), and people in a really low depressive state have to be monitored 24/7 so they don't kill themselves. Do some reading on the subject.
At any rate, now maybe there will be less insurance company stubbornness on this subject. I hope so, for the sake of everyone struggling with mental illness in any form. Life is bad enough when you're depressed (or worse) without getting shafted by your insurance company, too.
/end soapbox
This is a great thing. For anyone who has ever had to go for counseling at any time in your life, you have probably experienced insurance companies' stubbornness about paying for mental health services. If you're not cured after three months, too bad for you. You say your child died in a tragic accident four months ago, and you've been in therapy ever since? Get over it! Or shell out your own money for additional therapy sessions if you need them, because the insurance company really doesn't want to hear you whine anymore. You've reached the limits of your coverage. Too bad.
I'm exaggerating, but not as much as you think. When I was in therapy, I remember my therapist having extended negotiations with my insurance company every few months. We even reduced the frequency of our sessions so that I could stretch my covered sessions out and have less out-of-pocket costs - possibly not the best thing for me in terms of mental health, but economically necessary at the time.
And listen, I wasn't dealing with anything too severe, on the scale of mental illnesses. I wasn't bipolar, schizophrenic or anorexic. I feel sorry for people who have to deal with these horrible conditions in their loved ones. The insurance companies really do not want to know. They effectively snap at these patients "Just learn to control yourself," and then turn around and subsidize triple-bypass surgeries and Viagra for upper-middle-class men in their fifties. It makes me angry. As far as I know, no one says to Mr. and Mrs. Plushbottom, "Hey, you obviously brought this heart attack on yourself due to your unhealthy lifestyle, so we're not going to cover your treatment for heart disease. Suck it up."
Yes, heart disease is life-threatening, while insurance companies seem to think that mental illnesses are not. But I will say this: If you think untreated bipolar disease is not life-threatening, you are woefully uninformed. You have never heard what stupid things people in a bad manic state are capable of ("I can fly! Watch me!"), and people in a really low depressive state have to be monitored 24/7 so they don't kill themselves. Do some reading on the subject.
At any rate, now maybe there will be less insurance company stubbornness on this subject. I hope so, for the sake of everyone struggling with mental illness in any form. Life is bad enough when you're depressed (or worse) without getting shafted by your insurance company, too.
/end soapbox