Despite scientific proof that mental illness is genetic, not unlike diabetes, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, insurance companies have always limited benefits for the treatment of mental illness.

Even as researchers and social scientists demonstrated actual cost savings if treatment and prevention were equitably funded, insurance company power brokers refused to budge. Consumers had to find a way to force movement away from their archaic, discriminatory views.

So for years mental health organizations like Mental Health America, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Depression Bipolar Support Alliance have worked from the grass roots level to the floor of Congress to win enactment of legislation ending discrimination in mental health coverage.

Today we won!

With House passage of Emergency Economic Stabilization Act - 263-171, Congress has at last adopted mental health/addiction parity legislation. It took a national financial crisis and an unprecedented federal bailout to create fairness for 20% of America’s citizens. Unbelievable!

With speedy presidential approval assured, more than 100 million Americans will gain equitable coverage and improved access to needed mental health care.

So many will benefit. So many will live.

It’s about time.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 am and is filed under Hope, In The News, Mental Health, Science & Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.