12-06-2004, 11:51 AM
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../412010335
Mental health outruns coverage
Bill would boost insurance payouts
By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
HOUSE BILL 225
• Requires private insurance companies to offer coverage of mental illnesses equal to coverage of physical illness and injury.
• Drug coverage is not mandated.
• Does not include treatment for drug or alcohol abuse.
• Would not apply to government or union insurance policies, or self-insured corporations.
COLUMBUS - Pam Mattson is on the verge of losing her Finneytown home because her son has the wrong kind of illness.
Twelve-year-old Peter suffers from bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.
The family's insurance through husband Andy Mattson's work as an electrician is like many policies in that it doesn't offer the same level of coverage for mental illness as it does for physical diseases.
By age 9, Peter used up the lifetime maximum mental health coverage. Three years later, the Mattsons say they are going broke paying more than $1,100 a month to cover their son's therapy, drugs and hospital visits, including a recent stay that cost them $8,400."He needed to go back, but we don't know how we're going to do it," Pam Mattson said. "We live nightmares when our child is not stable."
The greatest hope for Ohioans in her situation, Mattson said, is state Rep. Lynn Olman's 10-year campaign to pass a bill requiring private insurance companies to offer equal coverage for mental and physical illness.
The business community has argued Olman's bill is a costly mandate that could force some small businesses to drop health coverage altogether.
Olman maintains that offering less insurance coverage for mental health is discriminatory.
Private policies often have far lower caps on lifetime coverage for mental health, and limit treatments to 20 or 30 per year. He said his brother, Kurt, killed himself about 16 years ago after suffering from depression. Olman's time is running out. Term limits will force the Republican lawmaker from Maumee out of office Dec. 31.
Several Cincinnati-area businesses have called members of the Senate Insurance Committee. The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce has written a letter to lawmakers arguing the mandate will increase costs and force businesses to drop health care coverage.
"Small businesses, in particular, face a special challenge in finding affordable health benefit plans to offer their employees," Doug Moormann, vice-president of governmental affairs for the chamber, wrote in the letter. "The passage of (Olman's bill) will make this task even more burdensome."
Ty Pine, state director for the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, testified before a Senate committee Tuesday that the bill's impact falls almost exclusively on small businesses. The bill does not apply to government employees, unions, or self-insured large corporations.
The bill allows insurance companies to opt out of the mandate if, as a result of the coverage, they are forced to increase premiums by more than 1 percent.
Pine said a 1-percent increase in premiums still equals $140 million, and premiums are already going up 20 percent per year.
Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee, noted that 34 states have passed similar legislation.
"Candidly, I don't think the alarm raised here today is evidenced in other states," he said. "This is like the guy who's got cancer but is worried about a mosquito bite."
Insurance policies for state lawmakers, and all state employees, already include equal coverage for mental health.
The insurance committee is scheduled to meet one more time this year, on Dec. 7. Hottinger estimates the 10-member committee has at least eight votes to support the measure. Olman believes it would pass if it gets to the full Senate. It already passed the House.
But Hottinger won't bring the bill up for a vote without support from Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, who is being pressured by Gov. Bob Taft to halt the bill. White can prevent the bill from coming to a vote on the Senate floor. White said he wants more information on how companies in other states were affected by similar mental health mandates.
Taft has specifically told the legislature not to pass any insurance mandate bills this year.
"I feel the legislation will have a consequence proponents don't anticipate, in that it will result in less health insurance," he said.
Olman doesn't think Taft would ultimately stand in the way of it becoming law.
"There's no way Gov. Taft is going to veto this bill. There's just no way," Olman said.
Asked about a veto, Taft said, "I don't have to answer that today." Taft's wife, Hope, is a strong supporter of the bill.
Nancy Minson, executive director of the Mental Health Association of the Cincinnati Area, called it "criminal" not to pass the bill.
As the leader of the five-county mental illness advocacy organization, she's troubled by the number of people who, because their insurance doesn't fully cover mental illness treatment, wind up on Medicaid, a program for the poor and disabled.
"So instead of working and being productive, they have to get on public insurance," she said.
Mattson said options offered by social workers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have included giving up custody of Peter to the government, or ending her 31-year marriage with Andy, so she could qualify for Medicaid.
She never considered either option.
"It goes against our morals, and plus, it's like cheating the system," she said.
Mental health outruns coverage
Bill would boost insurance payouts
By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
HOUSE BILL 225
• Requires private insurance companies to offer coverage of mental illnesses equal to coverage of physical illness and injury.
• Drug coverage is not mandated.
• Does not include treatment for drug or alcohol abuse.
• Would not apply to government or union insurance policies, or self-insured corporations.
COLUMBUS - Pam Mattson is on the verge of losing her Finneytown home because her son has the wrong kind of illness.
Twelve-year-old Peter suffers from bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.
The family's insurance through husband Andy Mattson's work as an electrician is like many policies in that it doesn't offer the same level of coverage for mental illness as it does for physical diseases.
By age 9, Peter used up the lifetime maximum mental health coverage. Three years later, the Mattsons say they are going broke paying more than $1,100 a month to cover their son's therapy, drugs and hospital visits, including a recent stay that cost them $8,400."He needed to go back, but we don't know how we're going to do it," Pam Mattson said. "We live nightmares when our child is not stable."
The greatest hope for Ohioans in her situation, Mattson said, is state Rep. Lynn Olman's 10-year campaign to pass a bill requiring private insurance companies to offer equal coverage for mental and physical illness.
The business community has argued Olman's bill is a costly mandate that could force some small businesses to drop health coverage altogether.
Olman maintains that offering less insurance coverage for mental health is discriminatory.
Private policies often have far lower caps on lifetime coverage for mental health, and limit treatments to 20 or 30 per year. He said his brother, Kurt, killed himself about 16 years ago after suffering from depression. Olman's time is running out. Term limits will force the Republican lawmaker from Maumee out of office Dec. 31.
Several Cincinnati-area businesses have called members of the Senate Insurance Committee. The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce has written a letter to lawmakers arguing the mandate will increase costs and force businesses to drop health care coverage.
"Small businesses, in particular, face a special challenge in finding affordable health benefit plans to offer their employees," Doug Moormann, vice-president of governmental affairs for the chamber, wrote in the letter. "The passage of (Olman's bill) will make this task even more burdensome."
Ty Pine, state director for the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, testified before a Senate committee Tuesday that the bill's impact falls almost exclusively on small businesses. The bill does not apply to government employees, unions, or self-insured large corporations.
The bill allows insurance companies to opt out of the mandate if, as a result of the coverage, they are forced to increase premiums by more than 1 percent.
Pine said a 1-percent increase in premiums still equals $140 million, and premiums are already going up 20 percent per year.
Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee, noted that 34 states have passed similar legislation.
"Candidly, I don't think the alarm raised here today is evidenced in other states," he said. "This is like the guy who's got cancer but is worried about a mosquito bite."
Insurance policies for state lawmakers, and all state employees, already include equal coverage for mental health.
The insurance committee is scheduled to meet one more time this year, on Dec. 7. Hottinger estimates the 10-member committee has at least eight votes to support the measure. Olman believes it would pass if it gets to the full Senate. It already passed the House.
But Hottinger won't bring the bill up for a vote without support from Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, who is being pressured by Gov. Bob Taft to halt the bill. White can prevent the bill from coming to a vote on the Senate floor. White said he wants more information on how companies in other states were affected by similar mental health mandates.
Taft has specifically told the legislature not to pass any insurance mandate bills this year.
"I feel the legislation will have a consequence proponents don't anticipate, in that it will result in less health insurance," he said.
Olman doesn't think Taft would ultimately stand in the way of it becoming law.
"There's no way Gov. Taft is going to veto this bill. There's just no way," Olman said.
Asked about a veto, Taft said, "I don't have to answer that today." Taft's wife, Hope, is a strong supporter of the bill.
Nancy Minson, executive director of the Mental Health Association of the Cincinnati Area, called it "criminal" not to pass the bill.
As the leader of the five-county mental illness advocacy organization, she's troubled by the number of people who, because their insurance doesn't fully cover mental illness treatment, wind up on Medicaid, a program for the poor and disabled.
"So instead of working and being productive, they have to get on public insurance," she said.
Mattson said options offered by social workers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have included giving up custody of Peter to the government, or ending her 31-year marriage with Andy, so she could qualify for Medicaid.
She never considered either option.
"It goes against our morals, and plus, it's like cheating the system," she said.