Leigh and I have purchased our health insurance coverage from Group Health Cooperative since I retired eight years ago and, aside from a few minor ailments and injuries, our main issues have involved mental health.  With a strong hereditary proclivity towards clinical depression and four suicides in the last three generations, including that of our dear son Garth, we are very cognizant of the dangers of untreated mental illness, and have been quite public and active in promoting awareness and education of mental health disorders, and working for suicide prevention.

 

Therefore, it was with great distress that we read of the proposed changes to GHC's coverage, due to take effect in April, 2006.   Along with a 25-30% increase in premiums for individuals and family members (like us), as well as corporate groups with 51 or fewer member, they intend to exclude all coverage for mental health services and all coverage for mental health prescription drugs.  It is difficult for us to fathom the intent of this.  Is GHC stating that mental health disorders are products of our imagination?  That those who suffer from clinical depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and other serious mental illnesses are expendable?  Not treatable?  Not important?  Are they saying these disorders are actually character flaws and weaknesses, that these people should just "buck up" and stop indulging themselves?  Are they denying that mental illness and suicide are serious health issues and that 30,000 lives in the US alone are lost to it, that this is the ninth leading cause of death in this country?  Are they repudiating their own recently released 10-year study that proves the effectiveness of antidepressants and expert follow-up care for preventing suicide in both adults and teenagers? 

 

Here's what appeared in GHC's own magazine last fall, after the Parity law was passed:

 

"More than 25 percent of Americans experience a mental health problem every year. Studies show that people who have limited mental health coverage often delay getting care, or drop out of treatment too soon. As a result, they end up suffering unnecessarily. Studies also show that people who get help early get better faster, and with less suffering."

 

Ironic, and not a little bit hypocritical, isn't it?

 

Although my family is comfortable enough to be able to continue getting this treatment, GHC's misguided policy can't help but leave many poorer sufferers out in the cold and unable to pay for the treatment they need.  The inevitable result will be an increase in all the problems associated with mental illness, including crime, homelessness, and suicide.  This is emblematic of everything that is wrong with healthcare in this country, putting corporate profits above the needs of sick people, and it's a giant step backwards in the fight to treat mental illnesses as the true medical disorders they are.

 

Leigh and I don't intend to take this lying down.  Health insurers should not be allowed to bypass the Parity law by reclassifying certain disorders.  This policy violated the spirit, if not the letter of the Parity law, and is reprehensible in every moral and ethical sense.  This can only happen in a broken medical care system, a system that puts profits above professional care, a system in which insurers are free to arbitrarily redefine illness and pick and choose who should be treated, and how much that treatment will cost.  We intend to expose this terrible policy to as much public scrutiny as possible.

We hope that GHC will respond and change their policy to adhere to the Parity law.  Further, I have a secret hope that this discussion will touch off a revitalized dialog on the state of healthcare in the US today, and drive us towards a solution in which all citizens have adequate medical coverage for all medical ailments.  We hope that, in our lifetimes, medical care will be available for all people, regardless of their employment status or their economic well being.  We are working towards that day.

 

January, 2006