GIVE EQUAL RIGHTS TO THE MIND

Mental illness should receive parity from health insurers

IMAGINE the outcry if health care insurance covered cancer patients
for only 10 physician visits a year. Obviously, that would be
insufficient and arbitrary2E

Last year, the California Legislature said such restrictions on
treatment of biologically based mental illnesses are equally wrong. It
passed AB 1100, requiring that health care insurance plans provide
treatment for those illnesses the same way they provide treatment for
physical illnesses. Gov. Pete Wilson caved in to the insurance lobby
and vetoed it.

Now, a virtually identical bill, AB 88, is working its way through the
Legislature. It is authored by Assemblywoman Helen Thomson,
D-Vacaville, and co-authored by more than 15 other members, including
several Republicans.

The Assembly and Senate should pass it without delay. AB 1100 took two
years to reach the governor's desk, but this time the research already
has been done, the insurance lobbyists listened to, the scare tactics
disproved. It's time to get the bill in front of Gov. Gray Davis, who,
we trust, will sign it into law.

AB 1100 drew bipartisan support because it was narrowly drawn to omit
controversial points. So is AB 88. It covers severe, biologically
based mental illnesses including schizophrenia, schizoaffective
disorder, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), depression,
panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism.

Psychiatric treatment of anorexia, bulimia and certain serious
emotional disorders among children also would be covered.

46or pragmatic political reasons, the bill does not apply to
treatment of alcoholism or other drug addition. Adding that coverage
would have increased resistance in the Legislature, maybe dooming the
whole bill.

We agree in principle with Dr. David Breithaupt, a San Jose physician
who argues in an adjacent column that health insurance plans should
cover drug and alcohol treatment. They should. For now, however, it is
a significant step to put treatment of mental illness on a par with
other medical care.

As written, AB 88 puts the force of California law behind knowledge
that long has been clouded by the stigma and secrecy surrounding
mental illness. It puts the Legislature on record as recognizing that
mental illness can be reliably diagnosed and is treatable in a
cost-effective manner.

It recognizes that most private health insurance policies provide
coverage for mental illness at levels far below coverage for physical
illnesses. This has resulted in inadequate treatment for persons with
these illnesses, which in turn causes relapse and untold suffering for
individuals with mental illness and their families -- and unnecessary
expense for the state and local governments.

Not all insurers have opposed AB 1100 and AB 88, but those who have
say they would increase insurance premiums, the argument repeated by
Gov. Wilson. Not so, argues Nancy Chavez, the staffer in Thomson's
office who researched the reform bills.

No large increases, Chavez says, have occurred in managed care systems
in other states that have passed similar legislation. For example, a
Rand Corp. study of the insurance history of Ohio state employees
found that in a managed care environment, insurance parity for mental
illness added a premium increase of only $1 per member.

Even were it many times that, it is more than balanced by the savings
that will occur when people receiving appropriate medicine and
treatment are able to live productive lives rather than be confined to
hospitals or other institutions, often at public expense.

FOLLOW UP: AB 88 is scheduled for hearing March 9 in the Assembly
Health Committee. To support its approval, write to Martin Gallegos,
Chairman, Assembly Health Committee, State Capitol, Sacramento 95814.
Or e-mail martin.gallegos@assembly.ca.gov