Michael Moore couldn't cover all that is wrong with the pay-for-play protection racket called Health Insurance but if he had included insurance coverage for psychiatric conditions it would have taken another movie.
Health Insurance companies will pay for one physical illness resulting from too little Dopamine production like Parkinson's Disease but are extremely stingy paying for mental illness resulting from too much or dysfunctional dopamine production like in schizo-affective conditions. The whole concept of labeling real diseases of the brain as "only" mental is a convenient excuse for these corporate leeches to get out of paying for needed care. In all those states that do not have the parity laws that supposedly force insurance companies to treat mental illness (Brain disorders) just like all other physical ailments, there are dozens of exceptions and limitations of coverage of these very devastating diseases.
Over the past weekend CNN's Soledad O'Brien had a pretty good documentary on America's treatment of the Criminally Insane. While some of that show covered how privacy laws prevent families from helping their loved ones before it was too late, the larger crime in America is how the purposeful lack of health insurance for mental problems actually puts the cost of helping loved ones out of reach of most families.
Whether the illness is Clinical Depression, Bipolar illness, some manifestation of Schizophrenia or other brain disorder the end result is that often the person loses their job and their health insurance simultaneously just like many other physical ailments. But a diagnosis of mental illness carries such a real stigma that it is a pre-existing condition that can always be used to deny coverage whereas some physical ills can be "forgiven" after a few years of good health and no recurrence.
And the medication needed to treat brain disorders is so expensive that although the affected people are employable there is often no way they can afford their medications and still have enough left over to live on, much less support a family. It is not uncommon for the price of the two or three medications needed to remain whole and functioning reaches more than $800. a month and $15,000. a year in medication costs is not unheard of. Of course if they can't afford their medications they will lose their jobs anyway because they will spiral back into a break-down. It is no wonder that so many wind up on some sort of public assistance like SSI and Medicaid. And of course that is just talking money for medications and doesn't cover the cost of seeing a Psychiatrist or a Psychologist. Actually most people with these problems need both because the Psychiatrists are often primarily responsible only for the psychotropic drug prescriptions and any patient followup or talk therapy comes from a Psychologist or Case Manager.
Many hospital systems treat their Psychiatric Units as cash cow and the ugly step-child at the same time. Patients housed in run-down wards and kept until their insurance or public assistance runs out and then let out with little or no follow-up. And if they are on some public assistance program so they get shunted to an overworked Doctor who may have to prescribe a psychotropic drug based on its price rather than how effective it is for that particular individual.
For many of these brain disorders each time the person has a break down it is more difficult for that person to recover and they may need more medication to cover their problems. Families talk about losing a little bit more of their loved one after each hospitalization. The way the medical system and health insurance companies treat people with brain disorders slowly but surely destroys them and their families. If they were treated fairly most would be functioning people with jobs and families and a future. Without proper health insurance they are SOL in the USA.