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Today, people from across the country served notice to their elected officials in Washington DC that it is time for Congress to end discriminatory practices by private insurers against people with mental illnesses. Parity in insurance coverage for mental health care is not just a question of fairness - it is a question of civil rights. Americans with mental illnesses should not be discriminated against because their private insurance will not cover mental health care or because their group health plan places extreme limits on the services it will cover. Nor should they have to find themselves jailed or homeless because they have been turned away by public mental health systems that are under-funded and overloaded with refugees from private insurers unwilling to cover the services they need. The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law proudly joins citizen activists from across the nation in supporting passage of the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act - a bill that would remove substantial barriers to coverage by requiring group health plans that provide mental health benefits to do so without arbitrary limits that differ from limits on medical or surgical care. Some lawmakers oppose the bill in favor of parity legislation that would require insurers to cover only "serious mental illnesses." Adopting such an arbitrary standard for coverage might be politically expeditious, but it would solve little. These proposals would leave struggling public mental health systems to pick up the slack as private insurers continue to divert consumers with mental illnesses into public systems-perpetuating the vicious cycle that has denied so many people with mental illnesses the services that they need and are legally entitled to. We commend the advocates and lawmakers who have been brave enough to support the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, but it is important for policymakers to remember that parity is but one piece of a much larger puzzle. Mental health parity is a necessary first step to solving the problem, but it should not be the last. Systemic reforms are needed if America's mental health crisis is to be solved. ###The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the leading national legal-advocacy organization representing people with mental illness or mental retardation. Through precedent-setting litigation and in the public-policy arena, the center works to define and uphold the rights of adults and children who rely on public services and ensure them equal access to health and mental health care, education, housing and employment. The nonprofit organization is supported primarily by private foundations and individuals. |
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