Help Us End Insurance Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness

Millions of Americans are closer than ever to getting coverage for needed mental health treatment, thanks to legislation now in Congress--but its passage is not assured. NOW is the time to send a clear message to Congress to pass this landmark parity legislation, which would require group health plans to ensure that their mental health coverage is on par with medical and surgical benefits. We encourage you to contact your Representatives and Senators to express your support for an end to insurance discrimination.
we need your help to make equality for people with mental illness a reality in our country. Join us in our advocacy campaign to spur Congress to pass mental health parity legislation and end discrimination against people with mental illness. Here are ways to support our effort.

1. Get informed: read our fact sheet that shows how parity is fair and affordable and that the time is now to pass the legislation.
2. Know the decision makers: Find out if your member of Congress sits on the Congressional conference committee that will decide the fate of mental health parity. See who in Congress is currently supporting our position.
3. Take action: Contact the members of the Congressional committee by phone or fax. Or click here to voice your support for parity on their Web sites. We have sample letters you can use.

Fact Sheet

The mental health parity legislation passed overwhelmingly by the Senate would extend the very limited protections established in the now-expired 1996 Mental Health Parity Act and close major loopholes in that law. The legislation simply requires insurers that provide mental health coverage to offer benefits at the same level as the benefits provided for medical and surgical coverage.

It's Fair

· The President and Congress need to go on the record now stating categorically that in the United States we will not discriminate against people with certain illnesses.

· Comprehensive parity legislation ends this discrimination by ensuring that mental health disorders receive the same insurance coverage as other illnesses.

· The success rate for treating clinical depression is over 80 percent. The efficacy for treating many other mental illnesses is as good, if not better, than treatment for common illnesses like heart disease.

· Parity must include the full range of mental health problems identified by DSM-IV. Limiting parity coverage to "severe mental illnesses" would exclude post-traumatic stress disorder, and would discriminate against children and adolescents.

· Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson recently told Congress that public health is a "national security issue." Mental health is a cornerstone of public health.

It's Affordable

· Untreated mental illness costs money. The American economy loses an estimated $113 billion a year due to untreated and mistreated mental illness. Lost productivity amounts to $105 billion of these losses, and $8 billion is spent on welfare and crime (Rice, 1999).

· Cutting dollars for mental health care can increase overall medical costs. A 30 percent cost reduction in mental health services at a large Connecticut corporation triggered a 37 percent increase in medical care use and sick leave by employees using mental health services, thus costing the corporation more money rather than less (Yale Bulletin & Calendar, September 20-27, 1999).

· Mental health services can save money. Spending less than $500 over a two year period to help treat depression in a primary care setting would save business $3,836 during that time (Rand, 2001).

· Mental health services can help reduce crime. For each dollar invested in treatment, studies have found a four to seven dollar cost-savings on crime and criminal justice costs. The cost of incarcerating someone for five years is $125,000 - a cost that is much higher than treatment (ONDP, 1999).

· Mental health parity is affordable. The Congressional Budget Office reported to the Senate that the parity legislation would raise insurance rates less than 1 percent.
It's Time

· The 1996 parity law provided people very limited protection against health-insurance discrimination. It ruled out discrimination in mental health coverage ONLY as to dollar limits. Even under that law, people with mental illness still routinely face discrimination in health insurance coverage and costs.

· In 2000, the GAO found that while 86 percent of health plans complied with the 1996 law, 87 percent of health plans which complied with the law imposed new limits on mental health coverage.

· Lack of access to treatment has tragic implications for individuals and families, as well as huge hidden costs to society from lost productivity and lost earnings, and increased burdens on the public health system.

Congressional Conference Committee

Sample letter to members of the House Committees on Appropriations, Education and Workforce, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means:

Dear Representative:

I am writing to urge your support for acceptance in conference of a Senate-passed amendment to H.R. 3061, the FY 2002 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, to end discrimination against mental illness in health insurance coverage. The Senate-passed amendment was based on S. 543, the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, which was introduced by Senator Pete Domenici and has 64 cosponsors. The bill was reported from the Senate HELP Committee by a 21-0 vote. The amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, offered by Senators Domenici, Paul Wellstone and 64 others, passed with overwhelming support October 30 on the Senate floor.

This legislation would extend the limited protections established in the now-expired Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and close major loopholes in that law. The amendment requires group health plans that choose to provide mental health benefits to do so subject to the same limits as apply to medical and surgical benefits.

[Note: You may want to insert a paragraph tailored to your own experience along the following lines:

Establishing the principle of mental health parity in law is important to people in _____ (your state) because………………………………….

For too long, health-insurance discrimination against mental health care - whether in the form of harsh limits on the duration of needed treatment or unreasonable out-of-pocket cost burdens - resulted in denying people access to needed care. This has resulted in needless suffering, diminished productivity and unemployment, additional burden on the public mental health system, and even suicide.]

This legislation is not simply fair, it is affordable and fiscally responsible. Under the measure, employers retain latitude to design health plans and to employ managed care techniques to contain costs. They are not required to offer specific mental health services. Entities that employ 50 or fewer persons are exempt from the law. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that its cost to group health plans would be less than 1 percent.

In fact, when one considers that workers with untreated or undertreated mental illness add billions annually to employer costs through absenteeism, turnover and retraining expenses, lower productivity, and increased medical costs, the enactment of mental health parity legislation can be expected to increase productivity and economic gain.

The Surgeon General's 1999 Report on Mental Health concluded that there is no scientific justification for treating mental and physical health differently, that diagnoses of mental disorders made using specific criteria are as reliable as those for general medical disorders, and that a range of treatments of well-documented efficacy exists for most mental disorders.

The events of September 11th and their aftermath have immeasurably increased Americans' awareness of the importance of mental health services. But many adults and particularly children who may have a heightened need for mental health services as a result of the traumatic events our country has experienced will be left without protection from arbitrary health-insurance limits on mental health coverage. Now more than ever we need comprehensive mental health parity.

Since January 2001, federal employees (including Members of Congress and their staff), retirees and dependents covered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) have received the benefits of mental health parity as part of their health care benefits at very low additional cost. The Senate-passed parity legislation is modeled on the FEHBP experience.

We urge you to help ensure that this legislation is included in the Labor-HHS-Education conference agreement.

Sincerely,