The state Senate approved a measure Monday to extend medical
coverage for those with mental and substance abuse illnesses.
The bill revises statutory mental health coverage requirements
and requires all New Jersey regulated health insurers and
the State Health Benefits Plan(s) to cover treatment for
alcoholism and other substance-use disorders under same
terms and conditions as for other diseases or illnesses.
Supporters say the expanded coverage will allow those who
suffer with illnesses deemed as "non-biological"
to get full treatment.
The bill faces intense opposition from business and insurance
groups who have consistently overstated the cost of providing
equal coverage for the treatment of mental illness in the
face of overwhelming retrospective evidence that such coverage
results in only minimal if any increases in insurance costs.
The legislation (A2512) now moves to the Assembly where
it has 23 co-sponsors. NAMI NEW JERSEY calls for advocates
to contact members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee
and urge them to end unfair discrimination in the treatment
of mental illness.
Let the committee members know:
• untreated mental illness costs American businesses,
government and families at least $79 billion annually in
lost productivity and unemployment, broken lives and broken
families, emergency room visits, homelessness and unnecessary
use of jails and prisons,
• treatment for mental illness works, if accessible
– treatment efficacy rates for most severe mental illnesses
exceed those for heart disease and diabetes,
• there is simply no scientific or medical justification
for insurance coverage of mental illness treatment to be
on different terms and conditions than other diseases,
• discriminatory insurance coverage of mental illness
bankrupts families and places a tremendous burden on taxpayers
through higher expenditures for public disability and health
benefits, chronic homelessness and inappropriate "criminalization"
of mental illness.
ACTION NEEDED
Contact Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts
Brooklawn Shopping Plaza,
Rt. 130 South & Browning Rd.
Brooklawn, NJ 08030
(856)-742-7600
asmroberts@njleg.org
Contact Assembly Appropriations Committee Members
800-257-7490
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/committees/assembly.asp
Nellie Pou - Chair
Joseph Cryan - Vice-Chair
Herb Conaway
Michael J.Doherty
Robert M.Gordon
Louis D. Greenwald
Reed Gusciora
Mims Hackett
Marcia A. Karrow
Richard A.Merkt
Joseph Pennacchio
Valerie Vainieri Huttle
John S.Wisniewski
