It’s encouraging to see the stigma of mental illness receding to some degree, although, as columnist Wendi C. Thomas writes in today’s Viewpoint cover story, that battle has not yet been won.

Tennessee and Arkansas have both adopted versions of mental health coverage parity laws in recent years – that is, laws that prohibit discrimination in insurance and managed care coverage of mental illnesses.

Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, however, have not advanced beyond D’s and C’s overall on policies that deal with the treatment of people with serious mental conditions, according to a report card prepared by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

There are some bright spots among all those poor marks.

Shelby County’s progressive program of jail diversion for the mentally ill and a Memphis Police Department Crisis Intervention Team that is trained to respond to incidents involving someone who is mentally ill have not gone unnoticed by national advocates.

But Tennessee’s needs, as identified by NAMI, including an expansion of the safety net program for former TennCare recipients, funding protection and workforce shortages in the mental health treatment, have not been fully addressed.

The best hope for further improvement, given the political mood in the region and diminishing state revenue, lies in national health care reform.

The Senate version of a reform bill would expand Medicaid eligibility for childless adults up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, including individuals living with serious mental illness.

As this page has argued before, expanding Medicaid eligibility in Tennessee would be beneficial with a commensurate decrease in the state funding match.

The Senate bill also would expand coverage of the uninsured through a new national health insurance exchange that would be required to cover mental health benefits at parity with physical ailments.

And the bill would protect people with mental illness from being denied health insurance benefits on the basis of a preexisting condition or being dropped from existing coverage due to a medical condition.

Health care reform would perpetuate the progress promised in 2008 with the passage of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, set to go into effect Jan. 1.

Whatever happens with health care reform, it is important for the feds to issue regulations before that date so that uniform parity rules can be in place in every state. Every insurance plan that offers mental health coverage should have the same deductibles and co-pays as it has for physical ailments.

Of course, it would be encouraging to see further movement in the culture’s attitudes toward mentally ill people as public policy advances. We can be proud that we have advanced beyond mere warehousing and seek a more humane and effective course.

But whether we are face-to-face with mental illness in our own families or dealing with it on the streets, our own lives can be enriched with a better understanding of the underlying causes and potential cures.

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Equal coverage for mental disorders

The stigma is slowly fading, but reforming policy and attitudes is still a work in progress.

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