Mental Health Notes

Have New Jersey Health Insurers Lost Their Minds?

by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes on February 7th, 2008

Or, are the minds of New Jersey residents just not worth it?

Thanks to the awesome Trench Reynolds over at MyCrimeSpace, we may just have our “You have got to be kidding me” moment for the week.

After reading and rereading this article, I’m so dumbfounded and appalled and have so many thoughts (and rants) running through my mind that I’m not sure I can approach the subject in an organized manner. So, I’m going to provide you all with the link to the original article and then break it down by paragraph. I’m sure you can form your own conclusions.

Here goes:

Original Article: Don’t Post About Your Health If You Live In New Jersey

Paragraph One:

New Jersey State Law requires coverage of mental illness only if it’s biologically based. Once you get past that antiquated mentality that probably allows medical insurance companies to dodge coverage on a whim, you have to wonder how they would go about proving that a condition was biologically based.

• Totally Unbiased Summary: New Jersey doesn’t require your health insurance company to cover your mental illness unless it’s biologically based, i.e. you have biological features that paved the way for the mental illness.
• My Thoughts: Hmm. I would like to think my health insurance would cover my injuries sustained in a car accident, and those wouldn’t be biologically based. So, why does my mental illness have to be biologically based? Is my brain - my sanity - just not important enough to get equal coverage? And, on that note, what if the car accident gives me head trauma, which causes brain damage, which causes mental illness? Will it not be covered, because it’s not a biologically-based mental illness?

Paragraph Two:

According to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, odds are eating disorders have no biological basis, and to prove it, they want your hard drive, your emails, and, oh yes, your Facebook and MySpace postings. Horizon claims that the writings of adolescent eating disorder patients posted on social networking sites in discussion with others give evidence of the disease’s origins, and further claim that it’s proof that the disease has no biological base.

• Totally Unbiased Summary: There are some who believe eating disorders aren’t biologically-based. And, if you have an eating disorder, they want to see all your personal stuff to prove make sure your eating disorder has some other origin.
• My Thoughts: Am I wrong in thinking that eating disorders can be caused by other underlying mental illnesses? And that those mental illnesses can be biologically based? Thus making the eating disorder biologically based? And, am I wrong in thinking that anyone without a degree in psychology and anyone who’s not sending me bills for psychiatric services can kiss my @$$ if they think I’m letting them pilfer through my personal thoughts?

Paragraph Three:

Horizon demanded (and was backed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz) the children’s emails, diaries, and other writings, that had been “shared with others, including Web sites such as ‘Facebook’ or ‘MySpace.’” In addition, Horizon demanded identification of all email accounts and a mirror-image copy of the hard drive for every computer for the entire family.

• Totally Unbiased Summary: Actual people of the law are honoring the demand to hand over personal items to prove make sure the eating disorder isn’t biologically based.
• My Thoughts: Who voted this woman into office?

Paragraph Four:

The scope of the request has already been narrowed; the original request would have included postings from OTHERS not related to the suit (and not necessarily in New Jersey) which would have been an incredible invasion of privacy. The argument made by the lawyers for the children is that many of these postings may have had therapeutic value, and could cause detriment to both the children involved in the case as well as others posting to the same groups or message boards.

• Totally Unbiased Summary: What can and cannot be viewed to help prove make sure the eating disorder isn’t biologically based has been limited. Some lawyers with an ounce of sense have stepped in.
• My Thoughts: Thank God for those lawyers.

Paragraph Five:

Online support groups have long been used for those suffering from eating disorders, but the more recent proliferation of pro-eating-disorder web sites and groups (also known as pro-ana) has certainly gained attention and may be exactly what Horizon is looking for with their demands. Facebook, MySpace, and LiveJournal have several groups listed under the keywords pro-ana, MIA, and “thinspiration.” Unless some type of policies are instituted on social networking sites prohibiting establishment of groups that promote dangerous behavior, the judicial system will likely continue to support insurers in their demands for online content to support denial of coverage.

• Totally Unbiased Summary: There are online groups that encourage eating disorders. These health insurers are onto them.
• My Thoughts: Wow. Well, now, it kind of makes sense. The health insurers don’t want to pay for an illness that has been self-induced. However, the question remains: Can you self-induce a mental illness that didn’t already have the biologically based soil for growing? And, on that note, if a policyholder tried to commit suicide but was caught in time, would the health insurer not cover the cost of medical care to treat the damages/injuries the person who tried to commit suicide did manage to sustain? I mean, after all, they would be self-inflicted. Then again, the person who tried to commit suicide may or may not have a biologically-based mental illness, so I guess in the health insurers less-than-stellar ways of thinking, they’d have to consider that, too. Seems like a vicious cycle.

So, what do you think? Are these health insurers off their rockers? Is the magistrate just trying to protect them from paying out for self-induced damages? Regardless of how the illness arrives, are our brains really not worth equal health coverage?

For more information regarding eating disorders, check out Breaking the Mirror.

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POSTED IN: Brain Damage, Childhood Disorders, Current Affairs & News, Doctors & Scientists, Eating Disorders, Government & Politics, Health Insurance, Rants & Raves, Sites of Interest, Suicide