Insurance matters

In recent weeks many of you have complained about your healthcare. Doctors who do not return calls, increased premiums, concerns about coverage for mental health and/or addiction treatment, and coverage for chronic medical conditions (mental or physical) and long term care. On my end, it has been becoming increasingly harder and harder to accept how insurance companies are choosing to treat mental health professionals. Several insurers have dropped their fees below a livable level. One has dropped their fee by 30%! My experience has been that once one insurer lowers their fees it is not long before they all do. Many insurance carriers are instituting policies such as “wellness and outcome assessments” where THEY, not you and I, determine whether or not you need to be in psychotherapy! This is the state of health care today. Last week PBS’s Frontiline aired a report about healthcare in America. A healthcare specialist said that he was not optimistic about improvements to the system. His reasoning is that doctors and hospitals won’t reduce their fees and patients demand too many services!!! This specialist ignored his own compensation package and the fact that the healthcare insurers are posting significant profits.

Depreciation of mental health

I realize that in these times when so many of our fellow citizens are out of work and in dire straits my own concerns about mental health care may seem minor. However, I have a view of mental health that differs from insurers. My view of mental health involves every person using their full capabilities to contribute to betterment of humanity. This is how we find happiness. We see ourselves as part of the human community and as such link our happiness to the happiness of other people. Psychotherapy is the art and science of enabling people to find this sort of happiness. This can only be done in a personal relationship that systematically and collaboratively assists another person to discover their place in the human family and encourages an interest, a passion, in making a meaningful contribution.