OPEN MINDS The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Pro & Con Many advocacy groups for the mentally ill are lobbying for separate benefit plans for “serious mental illnesses,” claiming that too many resources are used by the “healthy but unhappy, while the chronically mentally ill are neglected. They argue that the “real” mental illnesses - essentially those identified by ICD-9 codes 295-299 - are biologically- based diseases that merit the same coverage as other chronic diseases such as diabetes or cardiac disease. Since 1985, the Pennsylvania legislature has considered legislation which would mandate coverage of mental illness at . . .

OPEN MINDS The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Pro & Con Many advocacy groups for the mentally ill are lobbying for separate benefit plans for “serious mental illnesses,” claiming that too many resources are used by the “healthy but unhappy, while the chronically mentally ill are neglected. They argue that the “real” mental illnesses - essentially those identified by ICD-9 codes 295-299 - are biologically- based diseases that merit the same coverage as other chronic diseases such as diabetes or cardiac disease. Since 1985, the Pennsylvania legislature has considered legislation which would mandate coverage of mental illness at . . .