Posted by lucie lu on January 11, 2009, at 18:22:24
In reply to My psychologist charges a lot!, posted by Abby Cunningham on January 8, 2009, at 17:36:48
FYI-
Nearly all of us in the U.S. have had the experience of receiving paltry mental health insurance coverage while coverage for physical conditions is much, much better. This will all change in Jan 2010. As part of the 2008 bailout package that was passed by Congress, a nationwide mental healthy parity law also was passed. This means that it will be illegal for insurers to discriminate against people getting mental health treatment. Parity means that treatment for mental illness will have to be equivalent to that for physical illness. This nationwide parity law will supercede any existing state laws, which may be more restrictive. Anyone who is interested in learning more about this can contact Sen. Ted Kennedy's office in Washington (look on the web for contact information - ask for the office handling the mental health parity issue), since he is one of the senators who helped to push this legislation through (the other primary sponsor, I believe, was Sen Pete Dominici of NM). Mental health organizations have lobbied for this legislation for many years, and finally have been successful in getting this passed. It is about time.
poster:lucie lu
thread:872811
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090109/msgs/873402.html