at the grassroots of Ohio

Personal Story  Bank
True  Stories of the Fight for Equal Insurance Coverage for Mental  Illnesses   

INTRODUCTION:
The stories you read here were  written by Ohioans facing a devastating medical crisis:  Mental  Illness (brain disorders).  These authors have three things in  common:  learning that the brain is an organ that can get  sick; facing stigma and discrimination from society; and fighting for parity in insurance coverage to pay for their  treatments.

Science has come a long way in  treating disorders of the brain.  Severe mental illnesses like  depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be treated more  effectively than many heart diseases.  Unlike heart disease,  treatment for brain disorders are routinely limited or absent  altogether  from most health insurance policies.  Only 37% of all health  insurance policies provide inpatient coverage for brain disorders equal  to the coverage for other illnesses.  Only 6% have equal outpatient  coverage.  More than 60% specifically exclude treatment for those  with severe mental illness.  When private insurance fails, Ohioans  are forced into the public system at taxpayers' expense in order to get  treatment for  their illnesses.  This isn't a choice - it's often  the only option available to a family in crisis.

Currently, all state  employees, including Ohio legislators, have full parity in health  insurance for mental illness.  If one of the legitimate functions  of government is to provide equal protection for its citizens, why  hasn't a law been enacted so that all Ohioans  can receive this  benefit?

Mental health parity laws have  been adopted in states like Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode  Island, Colorado, Minnesota, and Vermont.  These states have proven  that private sector treatment for these disorders demonstrates not only  good fiscal sense - but in human terms, the benefits are  immeasurable.  In 1997, a bipartisan group of Ohio legislators  attempted to follow suit.  Due to various related and unrelated political  pressures, including the interests of insurance companies with headquarters in Ohio, we are still waiting.

Read the following stories  to find out why parity in insurance coverage is critical to many  citizens of Ohio. Feel free to use these stories in your advocacy for  parity in insurance coverage for brain disorders, but please do not  publish them in newsletters or any other form without permission.  Contact NAMI Ohio at 1-800-2646 for more information.

"Please tell me why it is  that insurance policies pay for expensive cancer drugs but will not  insure my sons?"

Click on any name below to  read their true story