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Medical Community Supports Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act

by Anai Rhoads

More than 600,000 medical and mental health professionals led by nine prominent organisations announced a "Bill of Rights" on Thursday which puts great focus on mental illness. Led by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Bill will serve as protection for all individuals who suffer from pyschological and mental disorders. In addition, it will cover persons who employ illegal substances in order to cope with moderate to severe melancholia.

The principles of S. 486/H.R. 953 will cover the individual's right to full disclosure regarding insurance or managed care plans, choice of doctors available and confidentiality, giving patients a role in determining their own treatment. The Bill will be sent to all consumer groups, health and managed care organisations as well as the U.S. Congress.

Without proper treatment, the consequences of mental illness may include frequent or steady unemployment, homelessness, apprehension and incarceration, and ultimately suicide. The annual economic cost of delay or non-treatment reachesbillions of dollars in tax-payer funds. With an estimated 70 percent recovery post-therapy, the cost to the economy and patient diminishes greatly if proper treatment is provided.

According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the most serious and disabling psychiatric conditions affect five to ten million adults (2.6  5.4%) and three to five million children aged five to seventeen (5  9%) in the United States. By the year 2020, depression is predicted to be the leading factor of disability in the world for women and children.

In 1996 over 630,000 adults became homeless due to either a mental disorder or substance abuse directly related to their disorder(s). By the end of 1996 2.1 million adults were destitute. Within a five year period, an estimated 2 to 3% of the U.S. population will have had at least one full day and night on the street due to drug abuse or phrenic impairment.[1]

"As mental health professionals, we have dedicated ourselves to the welfare of our patients," said Harold I. Eist, M.D., former President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). "Yet every day in our offices, we see the harm caused our patients who frequently are denied the care they need by managed care or insurance plan representatives who have never seen them, patients whose confidential medical records are not treated with respect, and who often are not told of all the treatment options available to them."

"The nation's medical and mental health communities speak with one voice in fighting for fair and equitable employer-provided mental health insurance," said APA President Marcia K. Goin, M.D., Ph.D. "Our message to congressional leadership is clear: it is time for a floor vote on this urgently needed legislation. Not only have majorities in both chambers signed on as cosponsors of mental health parity, but this legislation, by affording people the care they need, would save the nation's economy billions of dollars in lost productivity. The time to act is now."

Senators Pete Domenici and Edward Kennedy and Representatives Jim Ramstad and Patrick Kennedy introduced the Bill to Congress on February 27, 2003. In 2002 President Bush called on Congress to enact mental health parity legislation to be signed into law. So far, sixty-eight Senate co-sponsors and more than 360 national organisations support the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003.

The complete list of 360 organisations supporting this Bill as well signatures can be found at American Psychiatric Association.

©2004 Anai Rhoads.

[1] Link, B., Phelan, J., Bresnahan, M., Stueve, A., Moore, R., Susser, E. (1995) Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 65(3): 347-354.