Pubdate:  Fri, 05 Sep 1997

Source:   Houston Chronicle, page 9A
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/05/congressalcoholism.20.html
Contact:  Addicts seek more insurance coverage for drug treatment

By PHILIP BRASHER, Associated Press 

WASHINGTON  A television actress and a congressman who say they
couldn't have overcome alcoholism without professional treatment
urged lawmakers to improve insurance coverage for people with
drug and alcohol addictions.

"Treatment works. Look at me," Sharon Gless, star of the TV drama
Cagney and Lacey, said at a Capitol news conference Thursday.

Rep. Jim Ramstad, RMinn., introduced legislation that would
guarantee equal insurance coverage for treatment of alcohol and
drug abuse and other medical services.

Many plans have lower annual and lifetime spending limits for
such treatment.

"If I hadn't had treatment, I wouldn't be alive today because I
was abusing alcohol in such proportions. I was a binge drinker,"
Ramstad said.

The lawmakers estimated the coverage would raise insurance
premiums no more than 0.5 percent. Employers would not be
required to provide coverage for alcohol and drug abuse if they
don't already. Still, business groups fight such mandates on
insurance coverage.

"Congress has gotten wind that these things are popular. ... The
constituents like it, and there is almost no awareness among the
voters that these kind of mandates raise the cost of health
insurance," said Merrill Matthews Jr., vice president of the
National Center for Policy Analysis, a probusiness research
group.

Treatment for drug and alcohol abuse is open to fraud because it
is difficult for insurers to tell when someone is well, he said.

But supporters say the legislation would pay for itself by saving
businesses the cost of treating addictionrelated illnesses such
as liver and heart disease.

Ramstad, who was elected to Congress in 1990, spent 28 days in a
Minnesota treatment center in 1981. His insurance company paid
for the treatment, he said.

Gless paid for her own treatment 10 years ago, she said. "As much
as I wanted and needed to get better, I simply could not do it
without the professional help of others," she said.

More than 10 percent of Americans suffer from alcohol or drug
addiction.