The recent 2,078-page health care leviathan that swam through Congress had questions regarding health care and insurance reform for those with mental illness. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Senate bill HR 3590, passed on Christmas eve by a vote of 60-39, with one abstention.
What will happen to the seriously mentally ill? What will happen to those with schizophrenia, manic-depression and other bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, autism and autism spectrum disorders, as well as Asperger's syndrome, depression, OCD, PDD, schizo-affective disorders, sociopathy, and other disorders that populate the psychiatric lexicon called the DSM?
The bill has inclusions for those with mental illnesses. Americans with serious mental disorders suffer doubly with the behaviors of the disorder and the failure too often of adequate service delivery and insurance coverage. The National Institute on Mental Illness claims the new law will help the mentally ill receive adequate care and proper insurance coverage.
According to NAMI the following critical provisions in the new law are important to people living with serious mental illness and their families:
- Requirements for guaranteed issue and guaranteed renewal of coverage in the individual and small group markets.
- A prohibition of pre-existing health condition exclusions as well as restrictions to severely limit the use of health status in determining premium rates.
- A prohibition on the application of annual and lifetime insurance caps and limits on out-of-pocket spending
- Greater accountability for health plans seeking to increase premiums on enrollees.
- Including mental illness treatment in the required benefits package in the new health insurance Exchanges with a requirement for all plans in the Exchanges to comply with the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
- Expansion of Medicaid eligibility for single adults living with mental illness up to 133% of the federal poverty level.
- Improvements to the Medicare Part D program, including filling the "doughnut hole" coverage gap, added protections for dual eligible beneficiaries and strengthened requirements for broad coverage of medications to treat mental illness on drug plan formularies.
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Authorization of a new Medicaid demonstration project for acute inpatient psychiatric care.
Comments
I see article after article every day in support of the health care bill that cover the same 3 or 4 basic issues that the bill does to HELP people.
There are ten times as many issues that make it the most ridiculous legislation ever passed.
The tradeoff, risks, and cost are NOT worth the subtle claims of "helping" which the bill MAY or may NOT accomplish.
What we have is far from great. But what they are pushing on the people is a disgrace in comparison.
The people do NOT want this passed. So why are the left determined to pass it anyway??
You are there to do our bidding....not do what YOU think is right based on a lobbyist's needs.
You guys didn't learn in 1994 so maybe a harder hand will be dealt in November. Nothing would thrill me more than to see you traitors blackballed from Washington another 14 years!!!
I agree. This boondoggle is supported by NAMI and other organizations that'll profit in some way, but when the government dispenses care, it'll determine who gets what. I believe that those of us who are neuroeccentric, in particular, will have care parcelled out effectively forcing the older ones to die. It'll be a benign euthanasia and most Americans will merely shrug their shoulders. I personally hate this law.
Obama care terrifies me. I may have manic-depression, but I am not a burden to society either(I am an engineer). However, I fear that under the new healthcare system, many of the world's most ingenious individuals will be denied adequate mental healthcare and allowed to suffer and even die. Under this system, the government will decide who lives and who dies, and that is a horrifying thought. This could be the revival of eugenics.
Psychiatry is a pseudoscience. This is garbage.
This bill sounds like a fabulous movement to assist those in poor mental health. I think there does need to be some sort of reform to help those who are suffering. I would really like if they could subsidize the costs for treatment centers such as the dual diagnosis treatment centers. They have a lot to offer their patients, yet their patients do not always have the necessary funds. If we could could get more people into these treatment programs society would make great progress.
http://www.westbridge.org
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