By Gina Jordan
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Tallahassee, FL – Saying mental health is just as important as physical health, a bill taken up by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Tuesday would require companies to offer coverage for mental and nervous disorders. But opponents say this is just another unfunded and costly mandate from state government. Gina Jordan reports.
Senator Victor Crist, Republican of Tampa, has been pushing this proposal for about five years.
"We're looking at a lot of stressful situations in our family and in professional lives. We're looking at the outcomes from that affecting the workplace, and to that end, what this bill does is this good bill will provide for parity for mental health and physical health so that insurance companies would have to offer the option for an individual to have access to mental health and to be able to purchase that option if that person so chose."
Crist told the committee that forty-two other states have adopted similar measures, resulting in significant improvement in productivity in the workplace without extraordinary costs. Mary-Lynn Cullen with the Advocacy Institute for Children told the committee that mental healthcare is necessary for everyone's well-being.
"Disorders of the mind do not discriminate. Any family, your families, my family can be stricken at any time. Senate bill 182 will allow all of our families, if they wish, to spend an extra amount of money and get an extra piece in their policy."
She said if companies are going to cover healthcare, they need to cover all of it, including mental health. While other supporters waived their time before the committee, those who stood in opposition had plenty to say. Mike Hightower with Blue Cross Blue Shield said companies will have to spread the risk
"There are hundreds of different diagnoses that fall under this. In order for someone to do it, the policy of Blue Cross is that we have to spread it over everyone in order to make it affordable to all, which means you raise the cost of all."
Paul Sanford, representing Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Florida Insurance Council, said the measure is really a mandate.
"While this is characterized as an option, in fact, the only way the insurers can be sure they are spreading the risk is by putting it in every policy, and that's what a number of insurers will do. Otherwise, the adverse selection will drive up the cost for those few people that are within that group."
Senator Al Lawson, Democrat of Tallahassee, represents a lot of state workers who are already facing a hike in insurance premiums. He says that every such mandate over the last twenty-eight years has increased the amount of money that had to be paid from the state's health insurance trust fund. That fund is currently broke.
"And because it's going to cost, it's going to rest on every worker who hasn't had a pay raise in five years. And now it's going to be another cost that they're going to have to pick up on the health insurance, which will probably be devastating."
Before the vote, Senator Crist told the committee the state can't afford to wait any longer on the proposal. He says opponents don't really understand what the bill does.
"This bill does not mandate that a person has to buy coverage or the insurance industry has to make it affordable. It doesn't mandate that at all. They could offer a Cadillac; they could offer a Chevrolet; they could offer a bicycle. It really doesn't matter, because the bottom line here is the bill is just saying you've got to offer something, and it gives the choice to the consumer whether or not they are willing to accept the cost of it."
The measure does allow an opt-out to a group health plan if the application of this law causes an increase in plan costs of more than two-percent. The bill made it through the committee, but it has a few more stops before reaching the Senate floor. A companion measure in the House has also been heard by just one committee.