Alcoholic beverages or drug abuse affects 25 million Americans; only several million get treatment

The need in this country for improved insurance coverage for alcohol and drug addiction treatment is undeniable. Drug rehab and drug detox have little or no reputation among health insurers, yet drug addiction is a main cause of ruined lives, family violence, emergency room visits, in addition to death. According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor, alcoholic beverages and drug addiction also cost America $77 billion dollars each year in lost productivity. Clearly something needs to be completed make it easier for addicts to get alcohol and medicine rehab.

But the question that leaps out when 1 reads the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Therapy Act, H. R. 1402, is this: is substance abuse plus addiction "mental illness"?

The proposed "Wellstone bill", They would. R. 1402, would require insurance companies to treat "addiction along with other mental health disorders" on an equal basis with other persistent diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension.

The Wellstone expenses is being sponsored by U. S. Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn). Kennedy has said that people should "... end the discrimination against those with emotional health and substance abuse disorders. " And Ramstad said The legislature should "... end the discrimination against people with mind illness and chemical dependency. "

Where is this concept coming from that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are in the exact same category as alcohol or drug abuse, including those unintentionally got hooked on addictive prescription drugs. Is it possible that they are not psychologically ill - that they simply need drug detox and even drug rehab?

For example , was Justice William H. Rhenquist of the Supreme Court "mentally ill" because he was addicted to powerful painkillers for a decade before he entered pill rehab? You'd have a tough time convincing college legislation professors or anyone on the Supreme Court that we is going back and cancel 10 years of brilliant and insightful choices and opinions - the ones that later got Rhenquist designated Chief Justice - because he was "mentally ill. inch

Or what about one of America's most famous, prolific and effective writers who for decades was either drunk or " cable " on cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, cough medicines, or even marijuana? Was Stephen King "mentally ill" when he published several intricately plotted, best-seller blockbuster novels? We in no way heard anything about "mental illness" when King went in to drug rehab in the 1980s. And he's been dry ever since.

And let's not forget that Sigmund Freud, the daddy of psychoanalysis, was a habitual cocaine abuser who sang the drug's praises for years to anyone who would pay attention. After a friend died of an overdose, he abruptly offered it up and quit promoting it - not the actual action one expects from someone who is "mentally ill".

The so-called "mental health parity" bills such as the Wellstone bill have always failed to pass - and there has been a lot of attempts over the decades. Aside from the huge lobbying initiatives against it by the insurance industry, perhaps people additionally feel deep down that substance abuse and mental sickness are not the same thing at all and do not belong together in a this type of bill.

The "mental health industry", as it's recognized today, receives billions of tax dollars every year in grants or loans and other forms of support. In comparison, appropriations for alcohol together with drug rehab are a drop in the bucket. Yet without treatment dependency and addiction are costing us $77billion within lost productivity - more than heart disease, diabetes and malignancy combined, and far more than "mental illness. "

According to the Drug abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly 25 mil Americans suffer from a substance abuse problem. And less than a number of million of these victims receive the drug rehab they need.

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