Mental Health Parity Bill

House of Representatives Passes Parity Bill March 5, 2008

The House at last passed the mental health parity bill 268 to 148: 221 Democrats and 47 Republicans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA. Democrat), said, “Illness of the brain must be treated just like illness anywhere else in the body.”

The Senate passed a similar bill last year. Unfortunately, the Bush in today’s White House spoke against this pasasge, claiming that it “would effectively mandate coverage of a broad range of diseases.” Naturally his concern is for big business profits rather than workers in need, should this parity legislation become effective. In addition, he ignores the Congressional Budget Office estimate that parity would increase premiums for group health insurance by an average of only four-tenths of 1 percent.

The New York Times also reported that stigma has lessened against these illnesses as more and more armed forces veterans return from the Middle East with mental illnesses. So now we wait and see if the president vetoes the bill and, if not, whether businesses and insurers comply, and if parity is enforced.

There is no doubt about it. Attitudes toward mental health are changing for the better. Is yours?

You Can Make Parity Happen in Wisonsin: This Just In:

December 21, 2007

      The Mental Health Fairness Act, LRB – 1049/5 has just been introduced by Senator Dave Hansen (D) and Representative Sheryl Albers (R).  They are seeking co-sponsors.  A long bipartisan list of cosponsors will help the bill to get moving once it is introduced next month. Your call can help make that happen.

  Highlights
  This is a comprehensive parity bill: it requires plans to cover mental health and substance abuse disorders in a manner which is no more restrictive with regard to terms and conditions of coverage than other services, e.g., annual and lifetime visit and dollar limits, copays, deductibles. The bill, for the first time, also includes language requiring insurers to cover one mental health/substance abuse screening annually and also one pre and one post-partum screening for depression for pregnant women.  

  This bill is different than legislation introduced in recent sessions in that it does not increase coverage requirements for mental health and substance abuse treatment; it simply calls for equality in coverage.
  The U.S. Senate has passed legislation requiring mental health parity this year. Three House committees have also passed a similar version of parity. Unfortunately, progress has been stalled, and it is unlikely that federal action will be taken before the end of their legislative session. That is why it is incredibly important for Wisconsin’s legislature to act and end this kind of legalized discrimination that continues to plague patients struggling with mental illness and substance abuse.
  LRB-1049/5 is supported by the Wisconsin Coalition for Fairness. 

  ACTION REQUESTED
  Call or e-mail your state senator and assembly representative today and ask them to co-sponsor the Mental Health Fairness Act, LRB-1049/5.  Be sure to include your full name and home address in all communications.

  Talking points
  Note: It’s always effective to share your own experience and stories.
  ·         State law currently establishes a minimum of $7000 for mental health and substance abuse coverage and many plans limit their coverage to this amount.  This minimum has not increased since 1985 although the cost of services has increased dramatically.  As a result, many families and individuals are struggling to pay for these important healthcare services, and many are not able to get the essential healthcare services they need.  
  ·         Mental health disorders are treatable and the success rate for treatment is high.  The 42 states which have parity laws in place have not seen significant increases in costs.  Businesses that provide insurance coverage of mental illnesses have also found an unexpected benefit in reduced sick leave for physical ailments and increased productivity.

  CONTACT INFORMATION   
  Milwaukee Area State Representatives 
  Mail to: PO Box 8952 (Reps A-L)  PO Box 8953 (Reps M-Z) Madison, WI 53708
            District Number/ Name
    Phone
    E-mail
      #7 Peggy Krusick
    608–266–1723
    Rep.Krusick@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #8 Pedro Colon
    608–267–7669
    rep.colon@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #9 Josh Zepnick
    608–266–1707
    Rep.Zepnick@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #10 Polly Williams 
    608–266–0960
    Rep.williams@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #11 Jason Fields
    608–266–3756
    Rep.Fields@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #12 Fred Kessler 
    608–266–5813
    Rep.kessler@legis.wisconsin.gov
      # 13 David Cullen
    608–267–9836
    Rep.cullen@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #14 Leah Vukmir 
    608–266–9180
    Rep.vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #15 Tony Staskunas 
    608–266–0620
    Rep.staskunas@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #16 Leon Young 
    608–266–3786
    Rep.Young@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #17 Barbara Toles 
    608–266–5580
    Rep.toles@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #18 Tamara Grigsby 
    608–266–0645
    Rep.grigsby@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #19 Jon Richards 
    608–266–0650
    Rep.richards@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #20 Christine Sinicki 
    608–266–8588
    Rep.sinicki@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #21 Mark Honadel 
    608–266–0610
    Rep.honadel@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #22 Sheldon Wasserman  
    608–266–7671
    Rep.wasserman@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #23 Jim Ott    
    608–266–0486
    Rep.OttJ@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #24 Suzanne Jeskewitz 
    608–266–3796
    Rep.jeskewitz@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #27 Steve Kestel 
    608–266–8530
    Rep.kestell@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #58 Pat Strachota  
    608–264–8486
    rep.strachota@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #60 Mark Gottlieb 
    608–267–2369
    Rep.gottlieb@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #82 Jeff Stone 
    608–266–8590
    Rep.stone@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #83 Scott Gunderson
    608–266–3363
    Rep.Gunderson@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #84 Mark Gundrum
    608–267–5128
    Rep.gundrum@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #97 Bill Kramer
    608–266–8580
    Rep.Kramer@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #98 Rich Zipperer
    608–266–5120
    Rep.Zipperer@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #99 Don Pridemore
    608–267–2367
    Rep.Pridemore@legis.wisconsin.gov



  Milwaukee Area State Senators  Mail Senate correspondence to P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707–7882            District #/Name
    Phone
    E-mail
      #3 Tim Carpenter  
    608–266–8535
    Sen.carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #4 Lena Taylor 
    608–266–5810
    Sen.taylor@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #5 Jim Sullivan
    608–266–2512
    Sen.sullivan@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #6 Spencer Coggs 
    608–266–2500
    Sen.coggs@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #7 Jeff Plale 
    608–266–7505
    sen.plale@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #8 Alberta Darling 
    608–266–5830
    Sen.darling@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #9 Joseph Leibham      
    608–266–2056
    Sen.Leibham@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #20 Glenn Grothman 
    608–266–7513 
    sen.grothman@legis.wisconsin.gov
      #28 Mary Lazich 
    608–266–5400
    Sen.lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov
      # 33 Theodore Kanavas  
    608–266–9174
    Sen.kanavas@legis.wisconsin.gov


  If you do not know who your state legislators are, see “Who Are My Legislators?” at http://waml.legis.state.wi.us/winter

We Did It! Senate Unanimously Passes Parity Bill!

Unanimously! Thank you for your advocacy to your elected officials. Now we have to get parity passed in the House of Representatives: HR 3162! Please contact your House representatives and urge them to pass this crucial measure. Go to:
http://takeaction.mentalhealthamerica.net/site/R?i=yMvc-6-pANrTEackY81Bzw.

And then of course it’s up to our president to sign the bill. Will he, big business fan that he is? Let him know what you want and need. The shameful way our USA treats people who have mental illnesses has to end. You can help. I’m sure you know family members who need mental health services. Most of us do at some point in our lives. These illnesses run in every family. Every family. Yours, mine, your neighbor’s, doctors, attorneys, teachers. One in four people experience these illnesses. The National Institute of Mental Health has researched this fact over and over through the years. Everyone, you, me, and perhaps not the man in the moon.

It’s time everyone forgets about the media stereotype of people with mental illnesses. And the media has to stop featuring the impoverished people whose illnesses become out of control because they don’t have access to mental health care. The media must take responsiblity for reporting balanced stories on mental health. The “If it bleeds, it leads” mentalilty incites the dark side of human nature, that in some of us who crave any kind of attention and get it through acts of violence. No wonder our culture is witnessing a rise in violence and substance abuse. But people who have mental illnesses far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it. Through the centuries, those of us whose circumstances fired up our inherited illnesses have been victims of stigma by those who, out of ignorance or fear or arrogance, felt they could belittle and otherswise mistreat individuals who have these profoundly human conditions. This dark ages mindset must be enlightened. You can help by getting the facts about mental health issues. Put your money where your mind is. Educate yourself. Call 1–800–272–8255. Don’t waste any more time in misery.

This just in from Mental Health America

Both houses of Congress passed bills reauthorizing and expanding the children’s health
insurance program. Though the Senate- and House-passed bills differ in scope, each addresses important mental health issues. The Senate bill, S. 1893, includes a measure ensuring parity in the children’s health insurance program. The broader House bill, HR 3162, tackles other mental health issues including strengthening the Medicare mental health program while blocking an Administration-proposed cutback on
Medicaid rehabilitative services. View a summary of these provisions at

http://takeaction.mentalhealthamerica.net/site/R?i=_h81CQfLf18KyVhjLuySDg..

This month, as Congress takes up reauthorization of the children’s health bill, many of these strong mental health provisions are at risk of being cut from the final legislation
before it is sent to the President. Your help will ensure that these vital protections are preserved.

Please contact your senators and representative and urge them to preserve key mental health provisions from both the House and Senate versions in the final children’s health legislation. Go to:

http://takeaction.mentalhealthamerica.net/site/R?i=cexKuG0IwKU7L7sRygXYKA..

Access to mental health treatment for millions of Americans is at stake. Over two-thirds of children and two-thirds of older adults living in the community who need mental health services currently do not receive them. This is due in part to discriminatory
benefit limits on mental health services not only under the current law authorizing the children’s health insurance program, but under Medicare law as well. Legislation reauthorizing the children’s health insurance program provides a critical, but
fleeting opportunity to abolish these access barriers.

Join Mental Health America in calling on Congress to remove these barriers to needed mental health care in all federal health programs by keeping the strongest possible mental health provisions in the children’s health bill.

http://takeaction.mentalhealthamerica.net/site/R?i=yMvc-6-pANrTEackY81Bzw..

Thank you for taking action!

Perception and Parity

by Patricia Obletz

   www.OilsByObletz.com

What’s your perception of people who have mental illnesses, particularly after the recent massacre at Virginia Tech? If you’re like “61 percent of Americans, you believe that (they) are likely to be dangerous to others.” The fact is that people who have mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, are 2.5 times more often victimized by violence than the majority of people.

It’s impossible to calculate how many people are victimized by shame, fear, denial, greed, and widespread ignorance, self-inflicted or imposed. After Virginia Tech, Robert Bernstein, psychologist and executive director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said that the Center has won lawsuits for students against college administrations that have barred them from campus for receiving mental health services because the students were perceived to be “engaging in ‘endangering’ behavior.” The Center plans to release soon a model policy that would encourage students to seek treatment before their problems reach crisis proportions, as well as ensure that “any disciplinary action is based on dangerousness and not discrimination.” Dr. Bernstein also said that schools need to take actions to de-stigmatize mental illnesses, remove barriers to seeking treatment, and ensure that students will not be penalized when they do ask for help.

Indefensible stigma also must be the explanation for the fact that health insurance agencies in the most powerful country on the planet are allowed to deny individuals with treatable illnesses the kind of help that will enable them to become contributing citizens.

The bottom line is that these profoundly human conditions run in every family around the world.

The following statistics were compiled by Wisconsin Family Ties:

• One in five young people has at least one diagnosable mental or addictive disorder, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. [U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, 2001]

• Nearly 90,000 school-age children in Wisconsin have a mental illness that substantially impacts their functioning at home, at school, and in the community. [Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Family Services, 2006]

• Only 15.6% of Wisconsin children with serious mental health disorders received any public mental health services in 2005, compared to 32.5% of adults. [Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Family Services, 2006]

• Nationally, 79% of children with private health insurance do not receive needed mental health services. [Kataoka, Zhang & Wells, 2002]

• High school youth with mental health challenges are more likely to fail or drop out of school. Up to 14% receive mostly Ds and Fs, compared to 7% for all children with disabilities. [Blackorby, et al., 2003] The high school non-completion rate for children with emotional and behavioral disorders is 56%, highest of all disability groups. [O’Leary, Wisconsin Statewide Transition Conference, 2004]

• The suicide rate of youth under the age of 25 in Wisconsin is 36% higher than the national average. [Shiffler, Hargarten & Withers, 2005] More than 90 percent of adolescents who take their lives have a mental health disorder such as depression. [U.S. Surgeon General’s Conference on Children’s Mental Health, 2000]

• Mental health hospitalization rates for Wisconsin children increased by 17% between 1997 and 2003. [Wisconsin Council on Children & Families, 2005]

• Treatment success rates for mental health disorders range from 60% to 90%, surpassing those of other medical conditions such as heart disease, which has a treatment success rate of 45–50%. [Mental Health Liaison Group, 2003]

And there also is the 2003 President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health report, which concludes that “mental illnesses are the number one cause of disability in the United States . . . More than two-thirds of adults and more than half of the children who have diagnosable mental disorders do not get the mental health services they need. “ Furthermore, the Commission conceded that “stigma and inadequate health insurance coverage are in large part responsible for this harrowing fact”. And yet, loopholes in the current “mental health parity” legislation still get insurers and the rest of the for profit gang off the hook, those that have more than 50 employees.

Those of us in need of mental health services have yet to receive insurance benefits equal to those for physical problems, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, paralysis. Research also proves that these conditions often coexist with a mental illness which, if left untreated, exacerbates physical problems and increases costly emergency room visits.

Now we have the president’s April 20, 2007, radio speech on the latest mass murder in which he said: “Society continues to wrestle with the question of how to handle individuals whose mental health problems can make them a danger to themselves and others.” It’s obvious that we cannot wait for this administration to do anything to right this wrong. That’s why we the people have to act.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MIND IS. ADVOCATE FOR PARITY. VOTE FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS WHO PROMOTE SANITY, WHICH BEGINS WITH THE GOLDEN RULE: TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WANT THEM TO TREAT YOU.

Sources:

• Surgeon General’s 1999 report
• North Carolina State University and Duke University, Chamberlain, Claudine, “Victims, Not Violent: Mentally Ill Attacked at a Higher Rate,” ABC News.
• WI. Dept. of Health and Family Services, 2006

Overview of Children’s Mental Health Disorders

Anxiety Disorders - Characterized by excessive fear, worry, or uneasiness that interferes with daily life.

Attachment Disorder (or Reactive Attachment Disorder) - Condition in which a person has difficulty forming loving, lasting, intimate relationships. Children with attachment disorder often are unable to be genuinely affectionate with others, have an underdeveloped conscience, and are not able to trust.

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD, ADHD) - Characterized by short attention span and distractibility. Many children with ADHD are extremely impulsive and have difficulty remaining still, taking turns, and keeping quiet.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - Developmental disabilities that share many of the same characteristics. These neurological disorders can affect a child’s ability to understand and use language, play and relate to others, and understand the world around them. Impairment may range from mild to severe. Children with ASD are at increased risk for other mental disorders.

Bipolar Disorder - Marked by exaggerated mood swings between extreme lows (depression) and highs (excited or manic phases).

Conduct Disorder - Children and adolescents act out their feelings or impulses toward others in destructive ways. Youth with conduct disorder repeatedly violate the basic rights of others and the rules of society.

Depression - Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, guilt or worthlessness accompanied by inability to concentrate, loss of energy and a change in eating or sleep patterns that interfere with daily living.

Eating Disorders - Characterized by self-starvation or binge-eating and purging.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder(OCD) - A type of anxiety disorder characterized by intense, unwanted impulses that interfere with daily routine and cause the individual to compulsively and repeatedly perform tasks to try to deal with those obsessions.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - Characterized by a persistent or consistent pattern of defiance, disobedience and hostility toward various authority figures including parents, teachers and other adults.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - Psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of violent or life-threatening events. Age-specific features for some symptoms are now part of the diagnostic criteria (see below for symptoms of some mental illnesses).

Schizophrenia - Symptoms may include an alteration of senses, inability to synthesize and respond, delusions (false ideas believed by person that cannot be explained with reason), hallucinations (sense things that do not exist, such as hearing voices), and behavioral or emotional changes. It is an uncommon psychiatric illness in children.