Mental Health Parity
For any of you who have been around debate for awhile you may be familiar with a case called “Mental Health Parity.” When I was debating this was a big pet case for many teams. The idea was that under existing laws insurance companies did not have to treat individuals with mental illnesses the same as patients with other diseases.
However, in 2008 this all changed as explained in this Boston Globe Article
Tucked into the Wall Street bailout bill was a breakthrough for the estimated 113 million Americans suffering from mental illness – a provision making it illegal for health insurance companies to discriminate against patients suffering from psychological or behavioral disorders.
The mental parity law, one of many amendments included in the legislation to broaden legislative support for the bailout package, requires health insurance companies to charge the same deductibles, copayments, and out-of-pocket expenses for mental health treatments as for all other illnesses.
This would be a good article to cut for generic evidence in case anyone is running an old case on Mental Health Parity. Especially be thinking of this if all the evidence the debater is reading comes from before 2008!
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Here’s an inherency card I can get on board with