TREATMENT COVERAGE BILL SENT TO GOVERNOR

CONCORD - A two-year legislative campaign to require insurers to offer some
coverage for substance abuse treatment headed to the desk of a supportive
Gov. Jeanne Shaheen on Thursday.

The bill requires all health insurers offer some form of inpatient and
outpatient coverage for substance abuse but lets insurers set caps on the
number of visits and annual costs they would cover.

Insurers would also have to cover services given by licensed alcohol- and
drug-abuse counselors and treatment for two common eating disorders as well
as chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I think the House all along wanted this bill and saw through all the
illusions that were being created about its cost," said its prime sponsor,
Rep. Carol Moore, D-Concord.

The House of Representatives bucked its own Republican leadership and
refused to risk the bill's fate (HB 672) by sending it to a committee to
thrash out differences with the Senate's version.

"It could die in a committee of conference. The members of the Senate took
it to a committee of conference to kill it," Moore said.

They also ignored pleas by House leaders they were violating the state
constitution by forcing all public employers to pick up this same benefit
without state money to support it.

"We cannot mandate anything back to the cities and towns without funding
it," said Rep. John Hunt, R-Rindge.

The House voted, 165-161, against creating a committee and then simply
accepted the Senate bill that brought public employees under this mandate,
187-140.

Rep. Paul Speiss, R-Amherst, said this will save companies money as
employees with substance abuse problems get earlier and less expensive
treatment than if they wait until a crisis that brings on hospitalization.

"I doubt if there is anybody in this House today who does not know somebody
with a mental health illness or substance abuse problem and believes
successful intervention will fail to save money in the long run," Speiss said.

But Rep. Robert Wheeler, R-Goffstown, said this would cost state taxpayers
at least $90,000 a year and should be subject to bargaining talks on a new
contract in 2003.

"Ultimately there is some cost to this and we don't know exactly what that
is," Wheeler said.

Rep. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, said supporters scaled back the
original bill and the annual cost on insurance premiums could be as low as
$1 per family member.

Shaheen spokeswoman Pamela Walsh said Shaheen, as a state senator, wrote
the first state law that gave eight mental illnesses - including
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - the same coverage as physical ailments.

"The governor will be delighted to sign this bill," Walsh said.

Between 16 percent and 17 percent of Americans over 60 have a diagnosable
drug or alcohol problem, and 80 percent of youngsters in foster care have a
problem with substances or come from a home where chemical dependency is a
problem, according to Timothy Hartnett, director of the state Division of
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Recovery.

A Telegraph series last year explored the shortage of alcohol and drug
treatment services in the state.

The series revealed that part of the reason services were unavailable was
that substance-abuse coverage was left out of the mental illness coverage
law that passed six years ago.