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Revelle Takes On Mental Health Parity at State and National Levels

October 24, 2008

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What do depression and high cholesterol have in common? 

“They’re both warning signs of more serious illnesses and should be treated early, “says former King County Executive Randy Revelle who recently addressed the Community Transformation Partnership at its monthly meeting in Olympia in mid-September.   “Yet in our society we’ll pay for the cholesterol medication, but not necessarily for the depression medication and treatment.” 

Revelle thinks that’s wrong and has been heading a major effort to establish “parity” in treatment and insurance coverage for mental health and physical health.

Almost every week, Revelle attends some kind of national, state, or local gathering to share his personal story of recovering from a severe mental illness.  He also talks about the need for better insurance coverage and access to care for people in need of mental health services. 

In 1977, Revelle was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is a chemical imbalance of the brain that affects people’s moods with dramatic swings from feeling euphoric or “manic” to feeling very low or “depressed”.  Revelle evens out his moods by staying on medication.  He is a role model for recovery.  After diagnosis, he went on to become King County Executive (1981-85) and currently serves as the senior vice president of policy and public affairs for the Washington State Hospital Association.

“I’m living proof that people can and do recover from mental illness,” says Revelle, adding that his story is more common than most people think.  “Unfortunately, you don’t hear about recovery from mental illness as much as you hear about the ‘crazed murderer’.” 

Nearly one-fourth of all adults in the United States are diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder each year.  Unfortunately, Revelle says “stigma” or uninformed perceptions of mental illness hurt the public and media’s ability to understand mental illnesses and the support systems and treatments needed to help people. 

“We’re simply not yet a society that values mental health as much as we value physical health,” says Revelle.

Some progress has been made.  Revelle and others in the Washington Coalition for Insurance Parity were able to convince the Washington State Legislature in 2005 to enact a comprehensive mental health parity law for large businesses (more than 50 employees), state employees, and enrollees in the state’s Basic Health program.  In 2007, the coalition successfully advocated for expanding the parity law to employees of small businesses and the individual insurance market.   The new laws now protect two million of six million Washington residents from insurance discrimination against mental illness.

“We’re making good progress,” says Revelle, noting there also has been some success at the national level. 
Early in October, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.  The new law does not require health plans to give mental health coverage to individuals with physical health insurance.  If they do so, then treatment of psychological and addictive disorders must be covered like any other diseases.   The law also ends limits on hospital visits or higher deductibles and co-payments for mental health and substance abuse services.  The new national law applies to health plans covering more than 50 employees and benefits 113 million Americans. 
Revelle worked hard and successfully to ensure the new federal parity law does not pre-empt Washington State’s stronger and more comprehensive law.  He will continue to advocate for better coverage under the law to expand mental health insurance benefits and to improve systems to support people in need of mental health services.  
More information on Randy Revelle and his work on mental health parity can be found on the Washington State Hospital Association or the Washington Coalition for Insurance Parity.   

 

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