Tuesday, February 22, 2005

House Speaker Chopp's sister testifies in support of mental health parity bill (Washington) Seattle Post-Intelligencer story - "The sister of House Speaker Frank Chopp told lawmakers Monday that they need to end insurance discrimination and pass a bill that would force health insurance companies to cover mental health the same way they cover physical health. Jo-Anne Wilson, 60, told the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee that after she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1986, she had to pay significant out-of-pocket costs for many items associated with her treatment, including most prescriptions..." See also the related news story, Legislation would make insurers treat mental illness like other health problems and the commentary piece, Parity in health care, in the same source.