(First diary by a long-time lurker, please be gentle! As someone who is a great admirer of nyceve's health care diaries, this just seemed like a story that needs to be heard.)
I heard about this on 1010 WINS news radio (NYC) the other day and was so incensed that I had to go searching online to find an actual news article for more information.
A New Jersey family is losing their battle to get Blue Cross Blue Shield to cover treatment for their 16-year old daughter's anorexia. The reason? New Jersey law states that health insurers only need to cover "biologically-based mental illness," and an independent review board has sided with Blue Cross Blue Shield in believing there is no proof that eating disorders have a biological basis. In other words, they are saying to suffering girls, "It's all in your head."
Naturally, the family in question, the Beye's, are currently going bankrupt for daring to pursue treatment that they feel will save their daughter's life. They are $200,000 in debt and may have to sell their home.
And they are not the only ones:
John and Ann Brown of Harrington Park said their daughter is recovering from anorexia but was once so ill she was rushed to the hospital for fear she would have a heart attack. The couple paid out-of-pocket for what they believe was lifesaving treatment.
"We want insurance companies to do the right thing. We want to see true parity for eating disorders," John Brown said. "We wiped out a couple of retirement funds and will be paying for the rest of our lives."
There is a ray of hope:
Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) said a bill (S-807) before the Senate budget committee would mandate coverage of eating disorders, with little effect on health premiums.
The full article can be found here. (Newark Star-Ledger via nj.com)
The fact that New Jersey makes a distinction at all between mental illnesses with a biological or non-biological basis has been met with disapproval by the American Psychiatric Association. The distinction led me to do some digging about "healthy parity laws," which do not allow states to discriminate against certain types of mental illness.
Apparently NJ is one of 25 states with "limited health parity laws," which enforce these seemingly unfair limitations. (Better than Idaho and Wyoming, at least, which have no parity laws whatsoever.) To see how your state rates, look here.
I cannot help but think that if eating disorders did not disproportionately affect teenage girls, the public response to this issue would be a very different one. How long will it take before eating disorders are seen as a true disease, and not the fictionalized neuroses of "hysterical" young women? How many young women will die because their families cannot afford to pay for treatment? Stories like this make my heart hurt.