Mental Health and Insurance
Today, I joined my Insurance and Real Estate Committee Chairs Rep. Sean Scanlon and Sen. Matt Lesser held a press conference to unveil our agenda to reform mental health care in the 2020 legislative session. We heard from grieving families who have lost loved ones to mental illness and how vital it is for insurance companies to understand that everyone needs access to the best possible treatment to effectively combat it.
This session, our committee is working on several priorities to address this issue:
HB 5254 AN ACT REQUIRING HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR MEDICATION-ASSISTED TREATMENT FOR OPIOID USE DISORDER This bill would require individual and small group insurance policies to cover medication assisted treatment (MAT) for those struggling with substance use disorder. Examples of MAT include drugs such as methadone and suboxone which help individuals in recovery from opioid use disorder.
HB 5256 AN ACT CONCERNING REQUIRED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR DETOXIFICATION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES This bill would cover minimum standards of detox and inpatient treatment services for substance use disorder.
HB 5248 AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUDY HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR PEER SUPPORT SERVICES IN THIS STATE. This bill would form a task force to study requiring insurance coverage for peer support services. Peer support – or recovery support – specialists are individuals with lived experience in recovery who help others attain and maintain recovery.
SB 205 AN ACT CONCERNING TRAVEL INSURANCE AND SUICIDE. This bill will allow for death by suicide to be considered a legitimate reason to utilize travel insurance policy.
I spoke on HB 5247 An act concerning an explanation of benefits, which protects medical privacy by shielding sensitive medical information in certain circumstances from the insurance policyholder, allowing young people to get critical help. This is so vital in situations where young people may not be getting help for mental health or addiction issues.