Coverage for Mental Illness

The Southern California Psychiatric Society commends your editorial, “Proper Bid for Compromise on Mental Illness Coverage” (May 19), and the excellent reporting of Marlene Cimons in her story the same day.

Our nation must fight the stigma affecting the mentally ill, and end the discrimination of insurance coverage for mental illnesses. Mental illnesses are real illnesses. Actuarial studies by the respected firm of Milliman & Robertson show that treatment of severe mental illness as required by the recently passed Senate bill would increase total per-member per-month premiums for a “typical” preferred provider organization by only 2.5%. Furthermore, a health plan or employer could increase its deductible by less than $40 a year to fully insure the proposed nondiscrimination requirements of the Senate bill.

The “worried well” argument is a straw man. Today’s aggressively managed health care delivery systems don’t allow the “worried well” to continue in treatment.

MARC D. GRAFF MD

President, Southern California

Psychiatric Society