Mental patients, advocates call for insurance coverage

by Paul Ertelt, Watertown Daily Times Albany Correspondent
Wednesday, September 17, 2003

ALBANY - Paula C. Hulbert hopes, in a year or so, to go back to work, preferably in the mental-health field.

Ms. Hulbert, 46, Watertown , has a college degree, with a double major in English literature and composition, and sociology, but she has not been able to work since February 2001, when she was hospitalized for depression.

Under a regimen of medication and group counseling, she is better now, though she said she will always struggle with depression. Working would not only get her off public assistance, it would be therapeutic, she said.

"It would help my self esteem tremendously," she said.

But if she begins earning money, she would lose Medicaid benefits, which pay for her mental-health care. Private insurance provides limited coverage for mental health.

Ms. Hulbert came to the state Capitol on Tuesday to join with about 300 mental patients and mental-health advocates in a rally to support "Timothy's Law."

Timothy O'Clair's parents struggled for five years to get him the treatment he needed for his depression, but those efforts were stymied by the limits on mental-health coverage in their insurance policy. In March 2001, when Timothy was 12, he hanged himself in his Rotterdam home.

The bill named after him would require insurance companies to provide coverage for mental illness and substance abuse treatment on par with the coverage they provide for physical illnesses.

"If it was a law way back then, he'd be alive today," said Chelsey A. Miller, Watertown , a board member of the Northern Regional Center for Independent Living.

In June, the bill passed in the Assembly 139-11, but the Senate did not act on it before it adjourned for the summer. It did not vote on Timothy's law during Tuesday's one-day session, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, said he doesn't plan to call the Senate back before January.

Mr. Bruno said Tuesday he sympathizes with supporters of Timothy's Law, but argued that the Assembly bill is so broad and expansive that it would drive up health insurance costs for everyone.

"If that bill ever became law, you could not even afford health care in this state," he said. The state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses and many insurance companies oppose the bill.

According to the National Association of Social Workers, mental-health parity would increase insurance rates in New York by $1.26 per person per month.

Elizabeth A. Patience, statewide systems advocate for NRCIL, said Timothy O'Clair is just the public face of numerous teenagers who have fought a losing battle with depression and suicide.

A few years ago, a 17-year-old friend of hers from Amsterdam committed suicide. Like the O'Clairs, his family didn't have the insurance coverage to get him the proper treatment, she said.

"Timothy is not just one face," she said.

June C. Gundersen and Wayne R. Chouinard, both of Watertown , also attended the rally to support Timothy's law.