Blankly I stare at four little white pills on my nightstand. These “antipsychotic” pellets are a lifeline to keeping my thoughts properly ordered, the key to guarding and keeping my sanity. There are four other white tablets and capsules, for mood stabilization and sleep aid. I have lived with bipolar disorder for 23 years and have learned to treat my meds as friends, constant companions.
More than 20 million Americans take one or more psychiatric drugs daily. Of these, at least 75 percent take more than one drug daily. These medications protect them, and me, from falling further into mental illness. Yet, while the number of doctor-prescribed psych meds rises each year, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has recently given the United States a “D” grade on mental health care.
Colorado received a “U” for “unsatisfactory,” the lowest rating rendered by the alliance. Colorado ranks 33rd nationally in per capita mental health spending, according to the United Health Foundation. Inadequate state funding and a deep parity gap between mental and physical health coverage are primary causes for Colorado’s poor performance. Colorado also has a high rate of poor mental health days compared to poor physical health days. A poor mental health day precludes an individual from performing work or household tasks due to a mental illness.
Financially, the deep parity gap has long plagued millions of mentally ill Americans. According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly 90 percent of group health plans impose financial and treatment limitations on mental health care, despite irrefutable scientific research documenting the biological, genetic and chemical nature of mental illnesses. This results in a huge personal financial burden, close to $6,000 in 2006, all to keep my sanity. I’m grateful for my coverage; otherwise, my total current psychiatric retail care costs of more than $21,000 annually would bankrupt me.
Finally, help is on the way for mentally ill Americans. In early March, U.S. Reps. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., and Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., introduced the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act to grant greater access to mental health care and prohibit insurers from placing discriminatory restrictions on treatment. Their bill requires group health plans that offer benefits for mental health and addiction to do so equally with physical health care. It closes loopholes present in the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 that allow plans to charge higher co-payments, co-insurance, deductibles, and maximum out-of-pocket limits and impose lower day and visit limits on mental health and addiction care.
This bill is more extensive than a similar measure in the Senate. “This is not just another public policy issue. This is a life-or-death issue for millions of Americans,” Ramstad has said. Since February, his and Kennedy’s “Campaign to Insure Mental Health and Addiction Equity” has produced overwhelming response: 83 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of Democrats support equitable health insurance, according to a national poll conducted by Mental Health America in late 2006. Most respondents to a National Mental Health Association survey support increased premiums to achieve parity coverage.
In Colorado last Wednesday, Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 36, Mandatory Coverage of Mental Disorders, sponsored by state Sen. Moe Keller.
But millions of mentally ill Americans are waiting for solutions to the parity problem. One tactic to remain well: comply with prescribed meds, if you can afford them. I benefit greatly from Seroquel, primarily its effectiveness in managing my thought processes and its helpful sedative effect.
However, there is a downside for me in taking this medication: a permanent condition called tardive dyskinesia, which causes involuntary muscle movements, usually in the face. Unfortunately, there is no cure to reversing this condition.
Without my Seroquel, I’d be highly exposed to not only manic behavior but also psychosis – a symptom of mental illness, not a disease. Psychosis adversely alters my reality-testing ability. I could suffer hallucinations (sensations that I think are real but don’t exist), delusions (ideas I believe despite all proof that they are false), and thought disorders (thought processes that are chaotic and illogical).
Adjustments in meds are sometimes needed. I’ve been hospitalized six times for mania over the last 23 years. Because I’m acutely aware of what could happen if I don’t take my Seroquel as prescribed, I’ll keep on taking those pills on my nightstand, grateful for the ability to keep myself safe. I hope that millions of other Americans can be equally safe.
You can bet I’ll be among the loudest voices cheering when mental health parity legislation at both the state and federal levels becomes law. Ultimately, we will stamp out discrimination against mentally ill Americans.
Linda Rinehart is a survivor of bipolar disorder for 23 years, a mental health wellness advocate and a writer and public speaker.
