Why Is Drug Rehab Insurance Coverage Part of Mental Health Bill?

Alcohol or drug abuse affects 25 million Americans;brilliant and insightful decisions and opinions - the ones
only four million get treatmentthat later got Rhenquist appointed Chief Justice -
The need in this country for increased insurancebecause he was "mentally ill."
coverage for alcohol and drug addiction treatment isOr what about one of America's most famous, prolific
indisputable. Drug rehab and drug detox have little orand successful writers who for decades was either
no recognition among health insurers, yet drug addictiondrunk or wired on cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil,
is a major cause of ruined lives, family violence,cough medicines, or marijuana? Was Stephen King
emergency room visits, and death. According to the"mentally ill" when he wrote several intricately plotted,
U.S. Bureau of Labor, alcohol and drug addiction alsobest-seller blockbuster novels? We never heard
cost America $77 billion each year in lost productivity.anything about "mental illness" when King went into
Clearly something needs to be done to make it easierdrug rehab in the 1980s. And he's been sober ever
for addicts to get alcohol and drug rehab.since.
But the question that leaps out when one reads theAnd let's not forget that Sigmund Freud, the father of
Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act,psychoanalysis, was a habitual cocaine abuser who
H.R. 1402, is this: is substance abuse and addictionsang the drug's praises for years to anyone who
"mental illness"?would listen. After a friend died of an overdose, he
The proposed "Wellstone bill", H.R. 1402, would requireabruptly gave it up and quit promoting it - not the action
insurance companies to treat "addiction and otherone expects from someone who is "mentally ill".
mental health disorders" on an equal basis with otherThe so-called "mental health parity" bills such as the
chronic diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension.Wellstone bill have always failed to pass - and there's
The Wellstone bill is being sponsored by U.S. Reps.been a lot of attempts over the decades. Aside from
Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn).the huge lobbying efforts against it by the insurance
Kennedy has said that we should ". . . end theindustry, perhaps people also feel deep down that
discrimination against those with mental health andsubstance abuse and mental illness are not the same
substance abuse disorders." And Ramstad saidthing at all and do not belong together in a such a bill.
Congress should ". . . end the discrimination againstThe "mental health industry", as it's known today,
people with mental illness and chemical dependency."receives billions of tax dollars every year in grants and
Where is this idea coming from that people withother forms of support. In comparison, appropriations
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are in the samefor alcohol and drug rehab are a drop in the bucket.
category as alcohol or drug abuse, including thoseYet untreated dependency and addiction are costing
inadvertently got hooked on addictive prescriptionus $77billion in lost productivity - more than heart
drugs. Is it possible that they are not mentally ill - thatdisease, diabetes and cancer combined, and far more
they simply need drug detox and drug rehab?than "mental illness."
For example, was Justice William H. Rhenquist of theAccording to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Supreme Court "mentally ill" because he was hookedServices Administration, nearly 25 million Americans
on powerful painkillers for a decade before he enteredsuffer from a substance abuse problem. And less than
drug rehab? You'd have a tough time convincingfour million of these victims receive the drug rehab
college law professors or anyone on the Supremethey need.
Court that we should go back and cancel 10 years of