Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270120
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Almost 1 million adult Virginians suffer from one or more mental illnesses.
In any six-month period, 19.4 percent of our adult population will experience a major mental illness.
More than 61,500 Virginians are disabled due to mental illnesses.
Fifteen percent of all school-age children either are experiencing or are at risk of incurring a mental illness.
The fact that so many Virginians face the high costs associated with serious mental illness clearly establishes the need for state-mandated health insurance coverage for mental illnesses. Treatment for mental illnesses is effective.
Moreover, it is cost-effective. Adequate mental-health insurance coverage greatly improves the chances for appropriate treatment and has reduced general health-care costs for enrollees and their families.
Yet the already minimal health coverage now mandated by the state is facing serious restrictions or elimination. A reduction in mental-health coverage will force thousands more people to seek care in the public mental-health system - a system that is overburdened, underfunded and unable to meet current demands. This will precipitate a crisis in both private and public services and create a fiscal crisis as Virginia is forced to pay for the mental-health care of persons rendered medically indigent.
We oppose any erosion of benefits for mental-health care and call for equitable and adequate state-mandated insurance coverage for mental illnesses in all group health insurance plans written in Virginia. We further urge your newspaper to assign a reporter the responsibility of researching and preparing an article about the cost-effectiveness of insurance coverage in this area. ROBERT M. KAHLE President, Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley, Inc. ROANOKE
by CNB