Is your healthcare adequate for mental health? Do you not have any?

[BusynMember]

With the big debate going on about healthcare, I was wondering how many of us have adequate healthcare for our kids and their issues. Would you welcome extra help? Anyone not have ANY coverage?

We have Medicaid because insurance is not offered at my hub's workplace and in Wisconsin everyone poor with minor kids qualifies. By poor, I don't mean you can't own a car. Just has a specific means testing. Everything is covered from medications to all appointments, even the neuropsychologist. Still, I am hoping they pass something that will give my Aspie son healthcare at 18 if he doesn't have a job with healthcare. We can't afford to buy it for him. I don't think he's bad off enough to qualify for disability, which gives you Medicare.

How are you all doing in this department? It's worrisome to me because we are not well off enough to buy insurance and then have to pay big deductables.

 

[klmno]

We have NO insurance. I had just gotten difficult child on medicaid when he got put into Department of Juvenile Justice- making him ineligeble to continue on medicaid and now I can't do anything until he gets home and I see what he might be eligible for, then start that long process. So, it will be a while before we will have any, unfortunately.

 

[flutterby]

difficult child has traditional insurance as primary, and medicaid as secondary. Without medicaid, we wouldn't have enough insurance. The traditional insurance covers 30 mental health appointments per year - that includes therapist and psychiatrist combined. Medicaid gives us another 40.

 

[witzend]

husband's insurance through work allows for 18 visits a year at a free rate, or more at a much increased rate. It's ok if you are just working on some personal issues, but not good enough for chronic illness. As far as inpatient goes, it's 30 days a year. Period. That's not enough.

 

[DammitJanet]

With Medicare/Medicaid I have pretty good coverage except there are some problems with what is covered due to Medicare being primary. Its a bit of a quagmire. I wont complain too much though. It doesnt seem to matter if its mental health or physical health, the glitches are the same.

 

[DaisyFace]

husband could get insurance for the kids at work--but it only covers SIX therapy visits per year...

The children are better off on Medicaid--which, so far, has covered everything.

 

[Wiped Out]

We have good insurance through our work. We get to self select doctors and they cover mental health well compared to many insurances. Even with all of that, thank goodness difficult child qualified for Medicaid through the Katie Beckett program. It has covered absolutely everything for difficult child that the insurance hasn't. It has been a true blessing for us.

 

[JJJ]

The kids are on medicaid. It was prohibitively expensive to add them to husband's insurance and with the weird rules, we would have had less coverage with both than with just medicaid.

So far, so good with Medicaid.

 

[judi]

We were extremely fortunate when our son was younger: I had BC/BS thru work and he had Tricare thru hubby. Tricare even covered 5 weeks/year at Residential Treatment Center (RTC) to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

Our son has no health insurance now though he is working.

 

[emotionallybankrupt]

My insurance is wonderful for most situations. Even for mental health, the coverage is excellent...unless you have a difficult child in need of long-term residential treatment. I tried every angle I could find, and I was unable to find a way. My income is too much to qualify for any state assistance, even when the mental health benefits are exhausted. As everyone knows, the out-of-pocket costs without the insurance are impossible for most families. Now if I had been unemployed, difficult child would have had access to all kinds of help....

 

[KTMom91]

Right now, we're in limbo between the company administering COBRA and HR at Hubby's former company. We have about $1500 in medications that we're waiting to be reimbursed for once all the paperwork gets where it needs to go.

Basically, we have nothing.

 

[hearts and roses]

I carry the family's health care coverage through my job and it's adequate. It has limits but it covers just about everything. Way back when I was seeking a day program for difficult child, I discovered that I would have to put up quite a fight in order to receive coverage for it, and even then, I would have to meet an outrageous deductible in order for anything to be covered, which meant just about nothing because I'd be in the poor house by the time I'd reach that deductible. We have limited visits to mental health providers and chiropractors. We have a fairly decent co-pay at $25/visit, which I understand is less than many other companies out there.

Currently, my company is in the process of trying to negotiate for an HSA, which is a Health Spending Account. I'm niether for not against this idea, however, if the company doesn't make a contribution to the $4000/year deductible that a family must meet, then I will be very upset as I cannot afford $4000 out of pocket. My boss asked me if I thought we'd ever spend that much in a year and I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Between RX and Dr visits, um, yeah, we'd meet that. We may even beat that.

I am all for a healthcare overhaul. The first step should be in limiting what insurance comanies can charge for premiums, ban RX commercials, and limit the amount pharmaceuticals can charge for drugs. THEN, they should talk about whether or not we need a federal health care plan. And, while they are at it, they should talk about funneling funds from otherwise useless spending to preventive and alternative care!

Ahem, so in summation, I guess I would have to say now that difficult child is older and requires less in the way of therapy *well, not less, but she won't go*, our insurance covers our basic needs. If there was an emergency, however, I can't be certain.

 

[GoingNorth]

I also carry a combination of gov't insurance plans. Medicare is my primary provider and ChampVA is my secondary as well as being my part D provider. The combination seems adequate in terms of office visits to docs, including psychiatrist, but requires pre-authorization for inpatient or day treatment mental health care. I'm not sure how that works because if I need to be hospitalized it would be on an emergency basis. I do know that my mental health care for inpatient goes through Magellan, if that's any help.

 

[flutterby]

GN - If you have to be hospitalized on an emergency basis, they can still get prior auth. The insurance should have a number specifically for that.

 

[GoingNorth]

I checked on this and you are right: they'd admit me and then do the authorization. I got worried because I'd admit myself if I started having bad panic attacks again, or if I became suicidal again.

It makes sense that they'd do what it takes to get svcs authorized as that's the only way they are going to get paid. I can't afford to pay for svcs myself.