As a psychiatrist practicing on the Western slope at Mind Springs Health, a mental health organization dedicated to meeting the needs of the working poor, the disabled and everyone else (with a paucity of resources), I cannot imagine you supporting the current health bill up for approval.
When I came here four years ago from upstate New York, I didn’t understand the torrent of patients coming in asking for “their medication back” for known severe psychiatric disorders for which they had been treated successfully in the past. “No insurance, now I have Medicaid” was the answer. We were pretty busy, to say the least, doing things that wouldn’t have needed to be done if their access to care had not been interrupted by health care politics.
Even leaving aside the ethical issues of taking basic health care away from those who suffer mental anguish, and the families that suffer with them – even after praying for forgiveness – will you really be able to sleep at night knowing that you have taken effective treatment away from them so that the rich have more? I have concerns.
It has been known for years that untreated mental illness contributes to increased health care costs, both medical and psychiatric. Everyone knows that outpatient treatment is cheaper than inpatient care. As we have such limited inpatient facilities here on the Western Slope, our patients and their families will often be cared for by the criminal justice system and hospitals if this bill passes.
As a physician who works in the jails, I can tell you it is not the optimal place to treat most mental illnesses, let alone acute psychosis and drug withdrawal. Child Protective Services are not as effective (and are more costly) than treating parents’ mental illnesses so they can care for their own children.
My patients will flood the medical system as uninsured emergency patients, victims of medical illnesses stemming from damage from untreated depression and psychosis, and those desperately seeking the treatment they know will reduce their symptoms.
Don’t forget, these people vote too. People want to be well enough to work and take care of their families. They will not be happy with those who take away the medical treatments they so need.
Janet Feigelson, MD
Steamboat Springs
