A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
Should home schooling parents have teaching degrees? A California court believes so. The transcript of the court ruling is linked in this Mercury News article.
Apparently, these parents thought they had their kids in an approved private school but the judges in this child abuse case thought otherwise.
My suspicion is that this ruling will not be sustained by higher courts.
I posted about HR 1424 recently, noting that the mental health parity bill was going to be voted on soon. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed HR 1424. See this New York Times report for details.
Today an email from the American Mental Health Counselors Association HQ provided more background.
E-News from Washington
Vol. 08-12
March 6, 2008
House Passes Historic Parity Legislation!
On March 5th the House of Representatives passed comprehensive legislation requiring private health insurance plans to use the same treatment limitations and financial requirements for mental health and addictive disorder coverage as is used for substantially all other covered services. H.R. 1424, the “Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007,” introduced by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), was passed with strong bipartisan support by a vote of 268-148. (House members’ votes are listed online at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll101.xml.) The legislation is named for the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a tireless advocate for Americans with mental illness.
House passage of H.R. 1424 is an historic step forward for mental health and addiction treatment advocates, and comes after years of hard work by the mental health and addictive disorder advocacy community. Although similar in many respects to legislation passed last year by the Senate, H.R. 1424 provides more consumer protections by requiring plans covering mental and addictive disorder treatments to cover the full range of disorders recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—the same range of disorders as is covered for members of Congress and all other federal employees under long-standing requirements for Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) policies. Unlike the Senate’s bill, H.R. 1424 also stipulates that health plan covering out-of-network services for medical and surgical benefits must also offer out-of-network coverage for mental health and addictive disorder benefits. This requirement applies for both outpatient and inpatient care.
AMHCA and ACA applaud Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) for their long, hard, heroic work in gaining House passage of H.R. 1424. During floor debate, both Kennedy and Ramstad spoke about their own personal battles with mental and addictive disorders, their treatment, and how their treatment has enabled them to lead productive lives. AMHCA and ACA also thank those counselors who took the time to contact their representative on this issue.
Attention now shifts to House-Senate negotiations to reconcile their chambers’ versions of the parity legislation. Like the business community, the Bush administration argued in favor of the weaker Senate version, issuing a statement of policy expressing opposition to H.R. 1424. Despite this, AMHCA, ACA and other mental health and addictive disorder advocates are now working to build upon the strong bipartisan support for H.R. 1424 and the unanimous passage last year of the Senate’s bill, to encourage the development and enactment of parity legislation that provides consumer protections that are as strong as possible.
Beth Powell
Director, Public Policy and Professional Issues
American Mental Health Counselors Association
I recognize some social conservatives and business advocates do not favor parity. However, I see this as a very family friendly legislation. Severe mental disorders sap the resources of working families and are leading causes of disability. If this bill is law, managed care companies/insurers will still be able to deny inappropriate care for the questionable diagnoses in the DSM (e.g., caffiene intoxication) but will not be able to deny appropriate care for those who need it.
I welcome this announcement – Exodus President Alan Chambers disclosed on ExgayWatch this evening that Exodus let their Director of Government Affairs go in August, 2007 and is going to concentrate on ministry. His personal blog contains additional personal reflections on a recent thread at XGW authored by Wendy Gritter, Director of New Direction ministry. Early in February, I was pleased to highlight Wendy’s keynote address at the Exodus Leadership Conference where she called for a change of focus at Exodus.
I believe additional shifts called for by Mrs. Gritter would be helpful, including steps to make resources more scientifically accurate. For now, I wholeheartedly commend the leadership of Exodus for these moves.
McCains wrapped things up tonight. In his speech celebrating his wins, he was inspiring with this killer segment:
We’re the world’s leader, and leaders don’t pine for the past and dread the future. We make the future better than the past. We don’t hide from history. We make history. That, my friends, is the essence of hope in America, hope built on courage, and faith in the values and principles that have made us great.
I like it.
A bill that would force employers to provide mental health and addictions treatment coverage on par with medical conditions will be debated again this week. I say again because parity as a concept has been debated for a decade. It appears that this bill or something akin to it (HR 1424; SB 558) might pass this time around.
WashingtonWatch.com has this description:
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 – Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit treatment limits or the imposition of financial requirements on mental health and substance-related disorder benefits in group health plans which are not similarly imposed on substantially all medical and surgical benefits in any category of items or services under such plans.
Directs the Comptroller General to study the effect of the implementation of this Act on various aspects of the health care system, including the cost of and access to health insurance coverage, the quality of health care, Medicare, Medicaid, and state and local mental health and substance abuse treatment spending, and spending on public services.
I favor this bill. Families are often frustrated in their efforts to care for a family members with a mental or emotional disorder due to inconsistent and inadequate insurance coverage. With inadequate coverage, very few people can afford to pay for treatment of chronic disorders. Psychiatric disorders are major causes of diability but with adequate care, some diabilities can be addressed in an effective manner. Even with a significant mental disorder, people can continue to work productively if they have proper care.
For those inclined, the American Counseling Association has a position paper with suggestions for calling legislators to register viewpoints about the issue.