From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, May 3, 2001

Washington, D.C. - Senators John F. Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today introduced bi-partisan legislation in the U.S. Senate that would help seniors afford the mental health services they need, ending the discrimination that currently exists under Medicare for mental health services.

The Kerry-Snowe bill, The Medicare Mental Illness Non-Discrimination Act, would require Medicare patients being treated for mental illness to pay only the same 20 percent co-payment charged for all other medical treatment instead of the 50 percent co-payment now required by law.

"We know that our seniors are often the most vulnerable to mental illnesses yet we continue to make seniors pay an overly burdensome share of the costs of treatment," said Senator John F. Kerry. "At the same time that we are working hard to reduce the stigma of mental illness for all Americans, our Medicare system is telling our seniors that they must pay double the costs that they would for any other doctors visit. We cannot afford to play games with our seniors' health and mental illnesses are often the most serious – it is time to end this unfair discrimination"

The elderly suffer fro a wide range of disorders including depression, Alzheimer's disease and other dementia, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar depression and alcohol and substance abuse. According to a recent Surgeon General report, up to 20 percent of older adults in the United States, and nearly 40 percent of older adults in primary care settings, experience symptoms of depression, and as many as one in two new residents of nursing facilities are at risk for depression. In addition, older people have the highest rate of suicide in the country, and the risk of suicide increases with age. 60-70% of suicides among patients 75 and up have a diagnosable depression.

Substantial numbers of disabled individuals qualify for Medicare by virtue of their long-term disability. Of those, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill reports that some of 400,000 non-elderly disabled Medicare beneficiaries become eligible by virtue of mental disorders. These are typically individuals with severe and persistent mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.

Representative Marge Roukema (R-NJ) recently introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.