Saving You Money For Life

On the Friday before Christmas, outgoing New York Governors George Pateki signed “Timothy’s Law,” a measure that mandates that insurance companies provide coverage for most mental illnesses. Under the law, health insurance providers are required to cover at least 20 outpatient visits and 30 inpatient visits per year for treatment of mental illnesses such as attention-deficit disorder, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and eating disorders.

The bill falls short, however, of providing comprehensive coverage for some of the most common mental disorders. Post traumatic stress disorder and dependency problems with drug and alcohol are excluded from the mandatory coverage required by the new bill. The legislation’s sponsors accepted the exclusion as a concession measure to obtain passage and are dedicated to expanding the bill’s mandate in future years.

The law is named for Timothy O’Clair, a young New Yorker who took his own life in at the age of 12 five years ago in 2001. Because his family’s health insurance did not cover Timothy’s mental illness, his parents, Tom and Donna O’Clair, were forced to give up custody of him so that he could qualify for treatment state-funded treatment.

Timothy’s parents have since led a public fight to win support for a legal requirement that insurance policies include coverage for treatment of mental as well as physical ailments. The two were present at the state Capitol when the governor signed the bill into law.

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