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Health insurance benefits for mental health not so good

Privately insured consumers seeking treatment for mental health and substance abuse problems still have to pay more out-of-pocket than do patients receiving other medical services.

Researchers compared what consumers paid out-of-pocket for psychotherapy, behavioral counseling, medication management and other outpatient mental health services with what they paid for medical care between 1996 and 2003. They found that consumers' out-of-pocket expenses for mental health was 35 percent versus 21 percent for medical treatment. They note that state mental health parity laws cover only a fraction of privately insured patients and relatively few employers voluntarily moved to full parity.

"Coverage for Mental Health Treatment: Do the Gaps Still Persist?" was published in the September 2006 issue of the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.

Posted by Phil Daigle on September 18, 2006 1:15 PM
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