Mental Health Action Week

This week is Mental Health Action Week where The Mental Health Foundation is trying to raise awareness of what can be done to promote good mental health. Health insurance companies vary greatly in their offerings for mental health. Some offer no psychiatric cover at all whereas others offer limited amounts.

The problem for medical insurance companies is that mental health problems are more common that the general public realise. According to the statistics one third of patients visits GPs in relation to mental health concerns, in particular for mild depression and anxiety related complaints. What this means for us is that most companies cannot offer psychiatric cover because too many people would use it and this would force up the price of premiums accross the board.

Who Offers Psychiatric Cover?

• Pruhealth offers cover in both their midrange and comprehensive policies up to £7,000 and £20,000 respectively for inpatient psychiatry in any one year and £750 in inpatient care.
• Standard Life offers psychiatric cover in their comprehensive policy with an excess of £250
• CS Healthcare offer cover up to £1000 in any one year with an excess of 15% of treatment cost
• Aviva offer cover in their comprehensive policy of up to £1,000 a year for inpatient care and £500 for outpatient psychiatric care with the psychiatry element as an optional extra
• Bupa offer 28 days of outpatient care and up to £1,000 of outpatient care per anum
• The National Friendly Society offer up to 28 days of outpatient cover
• The Permanent Health Company offer up to 28 days of outpatient cover and up to £1,00o per year in outpatient cover.
  

Who Does not Offer Psychiatric Cover?
Budget policies hardly never include psychiatric cover however Health-on-line do offer a psychiatric add on option on their policies.

Self Help Steps
According to the Mental Health Foundation there are many steps that we can take to help us stay mentally well and reduce the likelihood that we will need medical intervention:

1. Talk about your feelings
2. Keep active
3. Eat well
4. Drink sensibly
5. Keep in touch
6. Ask for help
7. Take a break
8. Do something you are good at
9. Accept who you are
10. Care for others

Mental Health Cover

In the US private medical insurance is very necessary. Without it medical costs are extremely high. Despite their reliance on this system of health care the government has only just passed a law demands that health insurance providers give equal weight to mental health issues as well as physical ones.

Of course health insurance in the US is very different from what it is in the UK. They rely on it to keep their citizens healthy. Only 15% of US citizens do not have health insurance. Those that don't are not provided with very good alternatives.

Because there is no comprehensive, free health care like we have in the UK with the NHs, their insurance policies have to cover more. They cover substance abuse and addiction, for example, whereas UK policies do not. The new laws are designed to extend the level of mental health cover.

US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said about the new laws:

'Today's rules will bring needed relief to families faced with meeting the cost of obtaining mental health and substance abuse services. The benefits will give these Americans access to greatly needed medical treatment, which will better allow them to participate fully in society.'

In the UK health is not covered as standard on all policies. Psychiatric cover is provided only in the more expensive and top-of-the-range policies and even then with restrictions. Even then addiction issues, like drug and alcohol abuse, are never covered.

The problem is that mental health issues are quite prevalent in society. For example, at any one time it is thought that one in ten adults is suffering from depression. This means that it is an expensive thing for insurance companies to cover. It is also an area which is still surrounded by subjectivity, unlike physical health which has more known 'symptoms' used to diagnose it.

Of course if you take out a policy when you have already been diagnosed with a mental health condition then you will not be covered for this condition anyway. However if your policy covers mental health and you develop a condition you will be covered but each policy has its own limits of cover.

Bupa, for example, stipulate:

'Subject to your cover under your benefits, we may, at our discretion, pay for eligible treatment of a psychiatric condition ......'

The words 'at our discretion' suggest the arbritary nature of this kind of cover. This clause could mean that an insurance company has the ability to deny psychiatric cover to a client. 'Our discretion' is not a concrete term that can be contested.

Of course psychiatric treatment is available on the NHS but the resources are very stretched. Paying for treatment privately is expensive particularly when you consider the long term prognosis of many mental health conditions.