Health Insurance Parity for Mental Illness

Re “Mental Health Parity Urged,” April 30: I am grateful that President Bush supports insurance parity for mental illness. In 1990, I suffered a sudden onset of severe mental illness while working as a civil engineer in Orange County. I started having hallucinations and became very paranoid. I never used street drugs, and I was not abusing alcohol. Simply put, something went chemically wrong with my brain.

I was stunned to learn that my company’s insurance policy had an exclusion clause that limited coverage for mental illness to a lifetime benefit of $25,000. Within a few weeks of inpatient hospitalization this sum of money was depleted, and I found myself very sick and uninsured. Fortunately for me, I had previously served as a U.S. Navy officer, so I was eligible for free treatment at the West. L.A. Veterans Affairs hospital.

Brain disorders are very real and require medical treatment as do other physical illnesses.

Frank C. Baron

Los Angeles

*

Mental illness is an epidemic that affects millions of Americans every year. Ignorance and stigma are the major barriers that prevent individuals from seeking services in a timely manner, before they hit “rock bottom.” The mind is much more complex than a routine sprained ankle, and it requires getting deep below the surface in treatment. With the help of therapy and medication management, symptoms are often reduced or removed. It is about time that our leaders see how important it is to have mental health coverage made available under basic medical coverage.

Sonya Woods

Torrance

*

Mental health parity deserves a good hard look, in all its aspects. Let’s take a look at who pays for it, for instance. The field of mental health has long been known as a hotbed of fraud. Psychiatrists or other providers bill for thousands of hours of therapy that just plain never happened, and overmedication is rampant.

Who pays for this? The insurance companies, of course. And where do they get the money to pay for it? From their subscribers, of course. And what happens when subscriptions start dropping because companies can’t afford a package that includes mental health-care coverage and the fraud that comes with it? People who need physical health-care coverage pay for it. They end up out in the cold because their employers can no longer offer health-care benefits. They pay in pain and suffering because the cost of fraud is so high. Who pays? You do and I do.

Dave Silberstein

Altadena