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Making The
Case For Mental Health Coverage Parity
MIRS, October 15, 2003
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The Senate Health Policy Committee began moving bills today
designed to streamline the government-paid mental health
services given in Michigan, but some of the most serious
improvements will need to be made at the federal level, the
committee chair said.
Sen. Bev HAMMERSTROM (R-Temperance) has been holding a series of
mental health hearings to determine why nearly 40 cents of every
$1 spent on services is lost to administrative and non-patient
services. The upshot is that while there are some things the
state can do, a bulk of the administrative logjam is federal,
which is something that will take a long time to fix.
However, Hammerstrom said the hearings are helping her make the
case for legislation requiring that employers that offer health
care must offer comparable mental health coverage. The theory is
that more people covered by insurance will decrease the demand
for state-funded care and ease the administrative burden.
Shopping this "mental health parity," bill has been a tough sell
for Hammerstrom. While fellow lawmakers agree with the concept,
nobody is eager to jump on the bandwagon with the state's
economic situation as poor as it is.
Business groups have argued that requiring "mental health
parity" will jack up their medical costs, forcing them to either
drop coverage or reduce their regular benefits package. Experts
in this field have told the Health Policy Committee, however,
that increases in business' health care costs have been minimal
in other states that have adopted similar legislation.
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