Mental Health Insurance Benefits
Something that has not been mentioned relative to the treatment of mental illness is the way in which most health insurance companies pay for it. For those lucky enough to have insurance, "mental" condition benefits are much lower than "medical" condition benefits.
While a good number of us have unlimited days and a cap of about $1 million for medical conditions, most mental health benefits only cover about 30 days inpatient care per year and 30-50 outpatient visits per year. (Why do you think that the "magic" number for days in rehab is 28? It is because those who developed the treatment wanted insurances to pay.) I have seen caps on mental health to be as low as $25,000 - having worked in patient billing for a hospital with 250 psych beds, let me tell you - that is nothing.
So, lets look at the picture. We have those with no insurance out on the streets and no place to go. We have those with insurance who cannot get the treatment that they need because of insurance restrictions. If they continue treatment - they will end up on the streets from their bankruptcy. You've got a crisis and someone needs to look at it.
Anyone want to talk about some type of National Health Plan?
