10.0 What They Say:
Mental health parity will reduce illness, absenteeism at
work and crime, and provide increased productivity; “untreated
mental illness,” is “estimated” to cost $300 billion in productivity
losses, health care costs and “increased use of the criminal
justice system and social welfare benefits.”71
10.1 What They Don’t Say:
Massive increases in mental health funding and, therefore,
increased psychiatric services and treatment, has never reduced
crime or increased productivity. On the contrary, crime and
drug abuse have escalated, without anyone questioning the
long-term lack of results from psychiatric treatments. Additionally,
mental health parity will cost the health system billions
of dollars more in fraud.
Robert J. Franciosi, Research Fellow of The Goldwater Institute,
says that advocates claiming that parity will lead to increased
productivity, reduced crime, etc., do not have the means of
measuring this. “Measurement difficulties make it difficult
to determine the benefits of providing mental health care,
and calculations are fraught with uncertainty…there is no
hard evidence concerning how parity legislation has affected
productivity.” Interviews with two employers in states where
parity legislation has been introduced showed that parity
“had no effect on absenteeism.”72
Michael Tanner, Director of Health and Welfare Studies
at the Cato Institute, says that the $300 million cost is
“an unprovable argument that’s always made. We’re told that
we’ll save money, but costs always rise. We’re saving money
right now into the poorhouse.”73
The U.S. mental health budget went from $33.1 billion in
1994 to an estimated $80 billion in 1999. Add to this the
more than six billion dollars having been spent by the National
Institute of Mental Health alone on mental health research.
Now review the systematic failure of psychiatric treatments
in preventing crime, etc. Teen suicides have tripled since
1960; today, suicide is the second leading cause of death
(after accidents) for 15- to 24-year-olds; between 1965 and
1992, the arrest rates for violent crime by children under
the age of 18 rose by 262%. In 1996, more than 30% of those
jailed for violent offenses were under 24 years of age. Today,
there are 6 million children prescribed addictive amphetamine-like
drugs (some more potent than cocaine) for alleged behavioral
and learning problems.
A group of seasoned business experts in the United States
evaluated a selection of graphs representing 30 years of funding
to an “anonymous organization” (in reality, the mental health
industry) and trends in crime, drug abuse and suicide—all
social problems that psychiatrists and psychologists have
been funded to treat and correct. The vice president and investment
banker with a New York Stock Exchange member firm, said, “This
is a total failure....These statistics suggest a direct failure.”
A money and fund manager of 22 years responded, “These results
are horrible and show most likely poor management, poor products
and absolutely no success whatsoever,” and an investment advisor
questioned, “...why does the government keep investing in
this?”
Then there is the increase in fraud that we can expect
with increased mental health coverage (funding of services).
Each year in America, the mental health industry defrauds
public and private insurance payers an estimated $20 billion.
Already, insurance companies have issued warnings to be on
guard for fake claims filed in the wake of the recent terrorist
attacks. “Companies will be vigilant in spotting and prosecuting
insurance fraud,” declared John Edgar, the National Association
of Independent Insurers’ director of claims services.74
This year, the Healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA)
paid $185 million in improper Medicare payments in 1998 for
outpatient mental health services after the Office of the
Inspector General established that one-third of outpatient
mental health services were unnecessary.75
11.0 Summary:
Mental health parity cannot effectively exist because
there is no parity in the diagnosis of mental health problems
compared to real physical conditions that can be accurately
tested for and diagnosed. Psychiatrists cannot distinguish
between a mental disorder and no mental disorder. While
some patient advocacy groups, heavily funded by pharmaceutical
interests, and the mental health lobby, purport that mental
illness is like a physical disease such as diabetes, cancer
or epilepsy, and, therefore mental health parity is needed,
evidence simply doesn’t substantiate this.
As Dr. Elliot Valenstein points out, “Typically, patient
advocacy material has a pro-drug bias, encouraging people
to seek medication often by exaggerating the effectiveness
of the drugs and the scientific foundation on which they
rest.”76 “Contrary to what is
claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs
have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of
mental patients," he says.77
In short, mandated mental health parity is an effort by
the mental health industry to have governments force insurers,
employers, consumers and taxpayers for a service they will
not buy of their own free will. It drives up the cost of
insurance and has skyrocketed the number of uninsured.
In our current economic times, faced with rising defense
costs and government bailouts for failing companies hit
by the tragic events of September 11, fiscally, mental health
parity is also a very bad move.
That individuals, employers and the free market in general
have rejected these services has proven not only to be sound
financial judgment, it appears to be sound mental health
as well.
Recommendations:
1. Where mental health parity laws exist, they should
be repealed.
2. Pending laws, such as The Mental Health Equitable Treatment
Act (S.543), should not be passed.
3. Psychiatry and psychology should be held accountable
for the funds already given them and irrefutably and scientifically
prove the physical existence of mental disorders they claim
should be treated and covered by insurance in the same way
as physical diseases are.
4. Health insurance coverage for mental health problems
should only be provided on the proviso that full, searching
physical examinations are first undertaken to determine
that no underlying and, thereby, untreated physical condition
is causing the person’s mental health condition. Such examinations
would be covered under existing health coverage.
5. Mental health insurance coverage should not be based
on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders
(DSM) as it is not based on science or medical fact,
but psychiatric opinion only.
THE CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
INTERNATIONAL
While CCHR does not provide medical or legal advice, it
works closely with medical doctors and supports medical,
but not psychiatric, practices. It has long been the policy
of CCHR that anyone with a physical condition requiring
medical treatment should see a competent, non-psychiatric
physician.
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References
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