Even in this era of a generally enlightened American culture, we have been slow to treat mental illness with the same compassion as we have other health disorders. The worst and costliest of this discrimination has been in the health insurance industry, which penalized the mentally ill with higher costs and less treatment.
However, a giant stride toward eliminating ignorance about mental illness and making treatment more affordable and more fair for more than 100 million insured Americans will take effect no later than 2010, when a new federal law will require group health plans to treat mental illness equally with any other health issue.
It took the bailout of Wall Street to achieve this. Legislation pushed by mental health activists for 19 years was tacked onto the $700 billion financial rescue.
Also of significant help in the passage is the appalling realization that some 30 percent of troops returning from the Iraq war are suffering trauma or mental disorders requiring extensive treatment.
Other statistics are as compelling. The U.S. National Comorbidity Survey finds that nearly half of Americans (46.4 percent) meet the standard in their life of an anxiety disorder (28.8 percent of the total), a mood disorder (20.8 percent), an impulse-control disorder such as explosive outbursts, kleptomania, pyromania and compulsive gambling (24.8 percent) or chemical substance abuse (14.6 percent).
With a projected cost increase of 0.4 percent, this new law will help the lives of millions while reducing productivity losses and crime costs by tens of billions of dollars annually. This is the best of Washington at work.
