An Insurance Giant Is Stymying Efforts to Expand Mental Health Care Coverage in Michigan
Mental health activists in Michigan are fighting for legislative change to help families pay for desperately needed care. Insurance firm Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is shelling out exorbitant amounts of money on lobbyists to stop them.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in Detroit, Michigan, on May 25, 2018. (Raymond Boyd / Getty Images)
When Jennifer’s fifteen-year-old daughter was back in the hospital after another psychiatric emergency, Jennifer knew something had to change.
She tried to find a long-term mental health care facility in the family’s home state of Michigan, but the facilities they found only offered short-term care. Eventually, she found a residential treatment center eleven hours away in Missouri that treats adolescents struggling with mental health issues.
At $10,000 per month, her daughter’s stay cost the family $80,000. Although the treatment was deemed medically necessary by a psychologist and primary care physician and there were no available in-network clinics that could provide the correct care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), the state’s largest health insurer, refused to cover the treatment.
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