Bastard Child

Mental Illness, I mean. It always seems to be the last to be considered. The last to be treated as an illness. Mix-ups in the first weeks of the Medicare drug benefit have vexed many beneficiaries and pharmacists. Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said the transition from Medicaid to Medicare had had a particularly severe impact on low-income patients with serious, persistent mental illnesses. States Robert Pear in this article in the NY Times (registration may be required). Can anyone say they didn't see this coming?

I've spent most of my life battling depression (it's sitting on my doorstep right now), The last episodes my main problem being what my insurance did or did not cover (which plays into one of my main irrational fears - not having enough money - or spending money on myself): large copays or deductibles, is the antidepressant covered under the formulary, otherwise is there a reduced price I can pay because if I have to pay full price, I probably won't buy it (see irrational fear above).

I don't know why I get depressed (I'm still leaning toward bipolarII), and why so often, and why for little or no reason. It's an illness. I kind of wish my mother were still alive, not just for me to talk to (pre-stroke), but to realize there was nothing she and Daddy could have done when I was a kid to make me happy, since the drugs didn't exist then.

Goddamn I hate the insurance industry.Health Care should be a right, not a privledge. It should be available to everybody, rich, poor and inbetween.