Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
View Related Topics
June 07, 1999, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 750 words
HEADLINE:
Federal Mental Health Benefits to Expand; White House Conference Will Unveil
Other Initiatives to Aid Psychological Disorders
BYLINE: William Branigin, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Health plans covering 9 million
federal employees and family members will be required to offer the same
insurance coverage for mental illnesses and substance abuse problems as they do
for physical disorders under a series of new mental health initiatives that the
Clinton administration will announce today.
The initiatives, to be
unveiled at a White House mental health conference, also include measures to
improve treatment of the mentally ill, bolster research into mental disorders
and increase mental patients' access to Medicaid.
Other measures are
aimed at addressing the mental health needs of children, the elderly, the
homeless, criminals, crime victims, military combat veterans and Native
Americans.
"To improve the health of our nation, we must ensure that our
mental health is taken as seriously as our physical health," said Tipper Gore,
President Clinton's adviser on mental health care and chairwoman of today's
conference. Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton plan to participate in
the conference at Howard University along with Tipper Gore and her husband, Vice
President Gore, White House officials said. Nine department and agency heads and
two dozen members of Congress also will attend, officials said.
According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a
208,000-member advocacy group for people with mental illnesses, one in four
American families is affected by a mental health problem, from mild anxiety or
depression to severe schizophrenia or manic-depressive disorder.
"It's a
problem of greater size and scope than most people realize," said Laurie Flynn,
director of the alliance. "But it hasn't been a subject that people are
comfortable talking about."
Tipper Gore's interest in the issue reflects
her experiences with a mother who suffered severe depression, which Gore has
said contributed to the breakup of her parents' marriage when she was a child.
She also said recently that she was treated for depression after her son was
seriously injured in a 1989 car crash.
The centerpiece of the
initiatives to be unveiled today is a requirement for "full parity" in
coverage of mental health and substance abuse problems by the
285 health insurers that participate in the Federal Employees
Health Benefits Plan, the nation's largest private insurance program. As a
condition for participating in the plan, the insurers will no longer be allowed
to limit coverage of these disorders in ways that do not apply to physical
illnesses.
In addition, the administration will launch a campaign to
inform Americans of their rights under an existing law, the Mental Health Parity
Act of 1996, and is urging action on bills in the House and Senate that would
expand the parity provisions.
The parity measures have come under fire
from critics who fear they would drive up health-insurance premiums and add
hundreds of thousands of people to the ranks of the uninsured. The White House
insists that any cost increases would be minimal.
The National Alliance
for the Mentally Ill welcomed Clinton's parity requirement but said further
action was needed. It urged him in a letter to extend the requirement to "all
private contractors who do business with the federal government."
Other
initiatives cited by the White House include:
A $ 7.3 million study by
the National Institute of Mental Health to collect information on mental illness
and treatments nationwide.
An effort to encourage states to offer more
coordinated Medicaid services to people with mental illnesses.
A program
to help secure treatment for the 5 million Americans over 65 who suffer from
some form of depression.
An outreach program, including a $ 4.8 million
study, aimed at helping homeless Americans with mental illnesses.
An
interagency partnership to address the mental health needs of victims of violent
crimes, including terrorism.
The development of new strategies to deal
with mental illness in the criminal justice system.
A plan for a more
comprehensive approach in the military to treat and prevent combat stress, which
is estimated to affect 30 percent of those who have spent time in war zones.
A five-year, $ 5 million campaign to address the needs of the estimated
10 percent of American children who have behavioral or mental health problems.
A $ 5 million program to improve the mental health of young Native
Americans, who have suicide rates three times higher than the rest of the U.S.
population in the same age group.
LOAD-DATE: June 07,
1999 
