What Do You Think Of Barack Obama’s Stance On Mental Health Parity?
July 28, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Friday I asked you if mental health was going to play a role in the way you voted this November, and coincidentally, I received an email from Barack Obama Saturday letting me know about his stance on mental health parity.
Yeah, I know, I didn’t really get an email from Barack Obama, but after I sent an email to the candidates (thanks to a Mental Health America campaign), at least one of Obama’s people took the time to let me know about his stance on mental health parity.
Anyway, I thought I’d share the email with you lovely readers:
Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting me about mental health and the treatment of mental illness. As you may know, mental illness affects approximately one in five American families, and we must do more address this issue. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that untreated mental illnesses cost the U.S. more than $100 billion per year. As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, I worked to improve mental health services for people with serious problems who are going untreated and undiagnosed.
It is important to end discrimination against those with mental illness, and that’s why I support the bipartisan Paul Wellstone (D-MN) Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, an updated version of legislation that Senator Wellstone championed for over a decade in Congress. This bill works to end discrimination against people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
I also support mental health parity. When suicide is responsible for more deaths in America than AIDS and homicides combined, we must act. That’s why I have championed efforts to improve awareness of mental illnesses and provide timely and appropriate treatment, and why I cosponsored the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007. Parity means that we don’t allow group health plans to impose treatment or financial limitations on mental health benefits that are different from those applied to medical or surgical services. The bill closes the loopholes that allow discrimination in coverage that does not apply to other illnesses.
I’m proud of my record on this issue. I helped pass mental a health [sic] parity bill as an Illinois state senator that requires coverage for serious mental illnesses to be provided on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to other illnesses and diseases.
Thank you again for contacting me on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
So, there you have it.
I haven’t yet received a response from John McCain (and I doubt I will; the moment I sent the email to Barack Obama, I received an email letting me know they received my email and would respond when they could, but I didn’t receive such a confirmation or promise from McCain’s people), but you can read McCain’s Mental Health Statement, which was his response to the questionnaire the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sent all candidates a while back.
I was much more pleased with the contents of Obama’s email than I was the contents of McCain’s Mental Health Statement. Actually, McCain’s Mental Health Statement ticked me off a little bit. But, more on that later.
In the meantime, what do you all think of what Barack Obama (or, Barack Obama’s people) had to say in his email?
The above image is owned by fellow West Virginian transplanted mountaineer and is being used according to these Creative Commons attributions.
Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition. Alexander Smith
Fatigue is a common symptom of mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression.
@ Congress – How very thoughtful. Thanks for sharing.
@ Mental – You’re right, fatigue is definitely a symptom of various mental health problems.
I’ve been following the mental health parity bills that have gone throuh the House and Senate and I’m aware that “compromises” have been made. What results isn’t parity for people who struggle with eating disorders and need to seek treatment. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses and yet insurance rarely does an adequate job at coverage. I’d like to see what the future president plans to put into place regarding policy of mental health parity in these instances. Currently, we’re dealing with anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and ED-NOS (that huge grey area where people don’t quite fit the DSM-IV criteria for diagnosis). Thanks for any response! (Go Obama!)
@ Amy – I wholeheartedly agree that people with eating disorders need just as much attention/assistance as people with any other kind of mental health condition.
I noticed you linked to the Indiana Eating Disorders Coalition; are you an advocate with them? I also wondered if you were familiar with the drama that was going on in New Jersey a while back, regarding eating disorders and health insurance? I wrote a little bit about it at Have New Jersey Health Insurers Lost Their Minds?, but I’m sure a quick “google” could bring up more information about it.
Alicia,
I’m one of the co-founders of the Indiana Eating Disorders Coalition. My great friend Chris Kraatz is the other. We began in Nov. 2006. Yes, I’m familiar with the things that happened in New Jersey a while back. Chris and I are both on a public policy committee through ANAD- has people from around the country involved including professionals in eating disorders along with attorneys and professional advocates. I’ll have to come back here and read what you’ve written. Right now, actually, I have to get ready to go lead a recovery support group. I’d love to send some statistics that would likely blow your mind. Check out the book that Chris wrote. It’s called “Radical Recovery: A Manifesto of Eating Disorder Pride.” It’s excellent!
@ Amy – What a great advocate you are! The world needs more people like you and Chris.
I’m going to pass your information (and Chris’s book) along to Angelique. She writes http://www.breakingthemirror.com for b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel (our blog about eating disorders), and I think she’d be very interested in checking it out!
I have to say that the mental health system (as we call it) deeply abused its authority over my body, soul, liberty, life, mind and heart. I hope I will see the day when ignorant people who think that shrinks have the answers wake up and realize that shrinks have problems too. No shrink
should have the power over me to tell me what to think, feel, believe, and talk about or how to date, or all the other things that they’ve pushed me to do. Noone should have the power to give me pills or shots or liquid to drink just because someone out there is a little pissed off at me! No shrink should order me to be tyed up with sheets or a taco or put into four points because I do not agree with them. Shrinks have too much power. Give it BACK to me. For life, liberty, justice and happiness and money, for all (just you shrinks stay out of my life). For God
The plain fact is that I am not a fair man and don’t want to hear both sides.HenryLouisMenckenHenry Louis Mencken
@ Cindy – I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. What are you doing to manage your mental health now?
What about individual policies? While some states have parity laws already in place, and I applaud the steps being taken to group policies, the law does not apply to insurance companies that do not cover mental health services. As I am a college student, who is no longer on parent’s insurance due to age, I do not have a job yet–no group policy–and as such have individual insurance that does not cover mental health. Hence, the new parity laws do not even do me the slightest bit of good until I graduate and have a job.
They need to look into legislation requiring ALL insurance companies to cover it, regardless of individual or group, and with parity.
@ Texas Student – Thanks for chiming in. That’s a legitimate concern, and one that many people have. To my understanding, the current Mental Health Parity legislation on the table right now deals only with the group health insurance offered by employers of 50 or more employees (so, conceivably you could graduate college, get a job with a company that offers group coverage, and still not benefit from mental health parity if the company only employs, say, 23 people).
Of course, I could be totally wrong about that. It’s just the way I understood it from this DBSA alert.
In any event, it’s certainly not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. If I’m not mistaken, advocates and lawmakers have been working on this particular “version” of mental health parity for six years. If this one has failed so many times, I can only imagine how much tougher it would be (and longer it would take) to pass a more comprehensive version (i.e. one that benefits more people). So, the way I see it, once we have this in place, we’ll have solid ground to stand on for moving onward and upward!
Until anything passes, though, what are you currently doing about mental health services?
P.S. Coincidentally, I just posted about a strange dream I had involving football and a Texas prison…? Ha.
I know I’m late reading this…but wanted to share my thoughts. While it may sound good, I will wait and see if any of the changes he says he wants to make actually happen. I’ve been looking online to find his stance on mental health care….while some of it does sound good, a lot of it seems very….vague.