Measure
Urges Christie to Forego Exemptions that Allow State to Offer Less Coverage for
Mental Health Treatment Than Other Illnesses
(TRENTON) – An Assembly panel on
Monday advanced a measure sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver to help
boost access to mental health treatment by increasing insurance
coverage.
The measure was approved by the
Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee during a special hearing as part of the
comprehensive Assembly Democratic anti-gun violence initiative, which is
comprised of more than two dozen bills.
“In order to ensure that people with
mental illnesses have access to the treatment they need, mental health services
must not be treated as the illegitimate step child of the health insurance
world,” said Oliver (D-Essex/Passaic). “Mental health treatment is crucial to
reducing suicide rates, violence and incarceration. This is a crucial component
of any strategy to reduce gun violence. In the long run, the cost of providing
mental health treatment is far less expensive than the socio-economic fall out
of mental illness. It’s also the far more humane approach.”
The Speaker’s legislation (AR-144)
urges Governor Christie to take a leadership role in the public mental health
agenda and not apply for an annual exemption from the requirements of the
federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
The federal Mental Health Parity and
Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requires group health plans and health insurance
issuers to ensure that the financial requirements, such as co-pays and
deductibles, and treatment limitations, such as visit limitations, applicable to
mental health or substance abuse disorder benefits are no more restrictive than
the predominant requirements or limitations applied to substantially all medical
and surgical benefits.
Under current federal law, sponsors
or administrators of self-funded nonfederal governmental group health plans may
apply for plan exemptions from parity in the application of certain treatment
limitations to mental health benefits under the Mental Health Parity and
Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
The Executive Branch has been
applying annually for an exemption from mental health parity since the 1980’s
and 1990’s and from mental health and substance abuse parity since 2008 through
plan design and the State Health Benefits Commission action, and in the current
state fiscal year is exempt from mental health and substance abuse parity as it
applies to visit limits which may reduce the efficacy of
treatment.
Speaker Oliver noted that
approximately 50 percent of mental disorders begin before the age of 14; one in
five of the world’s children and adolescents are estimated to have mental
disorders or problems; and one in four adults experience a mental health
disorder in a given year. However, the Speaker underscored that fewer than
one-third of adults and one-half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder
receive mental health services in a given year despite the availability of
effective treatments.
Approximately one in four state
prisoners, one in five local jail prisoners, and seven out of ten youths in the
juvenile justice system have a recent history of a mental health disorder, while
over 50 percent of students age 14 and older with a mental disorder drop out of
high school, the highest drop out rate of any disability
group.
War and major disaster also have a
large impact on mental health and psychosocial well-being such that rates of
mental disorder tend to double after emergencies and lead to increased risk
factors for communicable and non-communicable diseases, intentional and
unintentional injury, and suicide.
Mental disorders are one of the most
prominent and treatable causes of suicide. In the United States, the annual,
indirect economic cost of mental illness is estimated to be $79 billion, most of
which ($63 billion) reflects the loss of productivity, but the financial
resources needed to treat mental disorders range between $2 to $4 per person,
per year.
The measure is slated for final
consideration before the full Assembly on Feb. 21. Upon approval, a duly
authenticated, signed copy of the measure will be transmitted to Governor
Christie.
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