eating disorders Archives

Senate could soon take up eating disorder insurance bill, former Miss America lobbies for passage

April 3, 2014 By Mike Lear

A former Miss America hopes this is the year Missouri passes legislation to require health insurance plans to cover the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.

Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund stands with Representative Rick Stream, sponsor of the House version of the eating disorder insurance legislation. (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund has visited the Missouri Capitol once again, urging state lawmakers to pass legislation that would require insurance plans go farther to help people fighting eating disorders.

Senate legislation on the issue is awaiting attention by the full chamber, while a House bill has been heard by a committee that hasn’t voted on it.

Haglund told lawmakers at the Capitol that she, herself survived a struggle with an eating disorder.

“The reason I’m here is to say that treatment works and we need to be able to offer people the full spectrum of care covered by insurance because the costs to treat eating disorders can just devastate families.”

Haglund says there is a wide gap between what treatment for eating disorders is covered and what is not.

“They’ll cover like 5 days of care or 7 days of care and then [their insurance company drops] coverage, or a girl or guy will get to 85- or 90-percent of their ideal body weight and then they drop coverage,” says Haglund. “You put that person back out into real life and you’ve only treated the body. You haven’t treated the mental component, the psychological component. That’s where the real problem lies and a lot of insurers want to get out of full coverage.”

The bill in the Senate is SB 769 and in the House is HB 1493.

Bill proposed mandating health insurance coverage for eating disorders (AUDIO)

February 20, 2013 By Missourinet Contributor

A State Senator has proposed a bill during a committee hearing that would mandate health insurance coverage for Missourians with eating disorders that would cover the diagnosis and treatment of the eating disorder as well as residential, medical, and psychiatric treatment.

State Senator David Pearce (R-Warrensburg) is advocating to help promote awareness of eating disorders throughout the state. During a committee hearing, Pearce proposed a bill to the legislature that would provide mandated health insurance coverage for Missourians, but at a cost that would not exceed $30,000 dollars in treatment funding.

Pearce says funding for the coverage would stem from the state’s heath plan. “The funding, I would assume would come from general revenue. A lot of this would be done by the Missouri consolidated health plan,” he said. “So a lot of that could be taken from existing information, statistics, that the state already has.”

Pearce says that by having this coverage, it can ward off the possibility of long-term hospital stays, or even death, by posing the questions how much money can be saved in the long run and how many lives can be saved? “Eating disorders is treatable if it’s caught early,” he said. “And how we can save lives and improve the lives of folks, and yet, if we don’t catch it early eating disorders has the number one fatality of all mental illnesses.”

He says any time the issue of eating disorders is discussed or the state is exposed, it’s positive.

AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports (1:04)