Mental health debate begins

Art Nadler

Monday, March 22, 1999 | 11:18 a.m.

The legislative Committee on Commerce and Labor begins debate Tuesday on whether the state's health maintenance organizations should be required to provide mental health coverage.

A hearing on Senate Bill 356, introduced by Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, will be teleconferenced at 7:30 a.m. to Room 4401 in the Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.

The legislation seeks to mandate that mental health treatment be paid in the same manner as any other illness covered in a health insurance policy.

"Mental health benefits have every ounce of importance as a physical benefit," Townsend said. "We feel any help we can give mental health patients to stay with their families and to stay at work and be tax providers is important. These people are assets to any company."

In December the Commission on Mental Health and Mental Retardation endorsed the bill draft of SB356. Mike Torvinen, administrative services officer with the commission, at the time said the state paid for 13,000 mental health patients' services because they had no health coverage. He said the state is budgeting $52.6 million to provide health coverage through June.

The commission felt SB356 would significantly reduce taxpayers' financial obligations.

But Keith Beagle, chairman of the Nevada Association of Health Plans, said that would only shift the burden to all policyholders throughout the state. He said two-thirds of employees in Nevada, mainly casino workers, are insured under self-insured plans setup by their employers.

These self-insured plans, Beagle said, would not be required to adhere to a state mandate, so smaller companies would be forced to shoulder the burden of providing mental health coverage.

"What they are proposing to do would only affect a third of the population," Beagle said. "Even the state Medicaid program carved this out of their policies."

However, Rosetta Johnson, president of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Nevada, said SB356 ends discrimination against mentally ill people. She said health insurance is provided for cardiac patients all their lives, and mental illness should be treated the same.

Johnson said there are between 15,000 and 20,000 people in Nevada who suffer from mental illness. Of those, she said, 9,000 can't afford treatment.

To date, 19 states have passed laws mandating that mental health coverage be provided.