Disability Insurance Claim Articles

Beware of the Ongoing Disparity Between Mental and Physical
Insurance Coverages

By Jeffrey L. Greyber, Esq.

This article is largely geared toward promoting consumer awareness. The awareness being that those requiring mental health services and / or those who are mentally disabled are still (inexplicably, in my opinion) not treated equally with those requiring physical health services and / or those who are physically disabled. You should keep this unfortunate reality in mind when securing health or disability insurance.

Regarding disability insurance and for example, it is still all too common for disability insurance policies to limit the mentally disabled to a shorter period of benefits (e.g., 24 months). Compare this to the physically disabled, who are, under most disability insurance policies, entitled to receive benefits until age 65 or through their lifetime.

As for health insurance and as discussed in the following articles, governments (both federal and state) are starting to take a stance against mental and physical health insurance disparity, but such disparity still rears its ugly head in many different ways, shapes, and forms:

http://healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief_pdfs/healthpolicybrief_112.pdf

http://www.apapracticecentral.org/advocacy/parity/parity-consumers.pdf

http://www.apapracticecentral.org/good-practice/winter11-mhpaea.pdf

http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/mental-health-benefits-state-mandates.aspx

There are sometimes creative ways to get around mental and physical insurance disparities (e.g., demonstrating that decreased mental function has a physical root). That said, however, one should not, in reactive fashion, bank on such creativity. Instead, in the short-term, one should proactively shop for comprehensive insurance. And, in the long-term, one might consider lending support to the continued social and legislative fight for full mental and physical insurance equality.

Disability Insurance Claim Articles