Equal Insurance Coverage for Mental Illnesses [parity]

In 2008 a law was passed that required parity in coverage so that coverage for mental health and substance abuse services had to be the same coverage as that for medical and surgical services. However, this law did not require.mental health and substance abuse services and there were other loop holes so that insurers could get around the parity mandate.

Now the Affordable Care Act mandates that mental health and substance abuse services be provided by all insurers and that parity exist with medical and surgical services. It is easy to underestimate the significance of the availability of mental health and substance abuse services to millions of people who previously did not have them. Even though there have been predictions of increased costs to insurers, it is likely that the costs will go down since it is estimated that 67% of primary care visits are due to psychiatric or substance abuse problems. Having these problems effectively treated will likely lower the costs for insurers for all the problems that are caused by stress and only effectively treated by addressing the stress directly by mental health and substance abuse services. This does depend on the services being available and the insurers providing the coverage for them. This will also depend on state insurance commissioners enforcing the law for those insurers who refuse to follow the law.

I hope that the availability of mental health and substance abuse services and parity will help remove more of the stigma that is all too often attached to those of us who require these services. It is time that this kind of ignorance is no longer tolerated.