It always bugs me how we fall all over ourselves to mend a broken leg but do little to save a broken heart. Read below about Mental Health Parity and upcoming legislation in Michigan:
Most employers who provide health insurance to their employees also provide mental health benefits. However, to access your mental health or substance use disorder benefits, you may be required to pay a higher copay.
A typical health benefit will require a 10% or 20% copay when you use services for a broken leg or heart disease. If you have a mental health or substance use disorder, you may be asked to pay a 50% copay, which can become unaffordable, especially if hospitalization or prolonged treatment is needed.
In addition, some health benefits impose annual or lifetime limits on the amount of mental health or substance abuse treatment that will be covered. These limits are typically at a much lower level of coverage than are your general (physical) medical coverage. Then you would be left alone to pay 100% out-of-pocket.
These kinds of higher cost-sharing are unfair and not based on medical science or sound economics. This type of benefit structure is contrary to the theory of insurance, which is to pool costs. This type of benefit structure is the opposite of catastrophic coverage.
The disparity in coverage for mental health and substance use disorders is health insurance discrimination.
The time for mental health parity in Michigan is now. 42 other states have passed some form of parity legislation. Bills have been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives and in the Michigan Senate.
To find out what you can do to help parity pass in Michigan, read through the information on this site: http://michiganparity.googlepages.com
No comments:
Post a Comment