1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am your constituent and I want you to know that insurance companies claim to cover mental health care but are shortchanging patients and providers alike. They deny claims for treatment, make providers wait hours to talk to customer service to try to get reimbursed, cut the allowable the treatment time, and seek to cut off treatment. They even do this for patients who are suicidal. As a result providers are leaving the insurance company’s networks and leaving so many patients without care. Here is a reference to the ProPublica/NPR report for your legislative staff to review. https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-medical-director-doctor-patient-preapproval-denials-insurance HR 3421, the vastly improved Medicare for All Act covers such services - check Title 2, a), section 5 on page 11. Here is the text for you https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hr3421/BILLS-118hr3421ih.pdf We sent you to Congress to fix problems. I don’t want you to put a band aid on this wound with some obtuse rule for insurance companies that they will weasel around and continue to cheat patients and providers. I want you to pass universal healthcare for all of us and make sure all of us can get the treatment we deserve, not the runaround from insurance companies.