But psychiatry had a “solution.” In the 1970s, psychiatric lobbyists began to descend on state legislative bodies with demands that psychiatry and the mentally “ill” be treated “fairly.” To psychiatry, “fair” treatment involved mandates that prohibited an insurance policy from being written if it did not include psychiatric coverage.
By the 1980s, a majority of states had passed mandated mental health coverage laws. The “corner” psychiatric facility phenomenon was born. Between 1984 and 1988, the number of psychiatric institutions doubled. The number of psychiatric hospitalizations rocketed 350 percent in just four years.
Insurance premiums went through the roof. A Blue Cross/Blue Shield study reported that average payments for those using psychiatric services were three times higher than for those who did not. Businesses reported that mental health claims were consuming up to 40 percent of their health care dollar and rising.
“We have some employees going twice a week at $150 a visit and no end in sight,” said Helen Darling, a benefits manager at Xerox Corporation.
These statistics were the combined result of psychiatry’s lobbying for mandatory coverage, abuse of involuntary commitment laws, and rapid invention and promotion of non-existent “illnesses.” Insurance companies fought back by placing limits on psychiatric coverage, but the costs continued to mushroom. Foster Higgins, an insurance benefits consulting firm, reported that mental health costs to the average company again doubled between 1987 and 1991.
Psychiatry’s $40,000,000,000 Fraud continued...
    
| Previous | Glossary of Scientology Terms | Contents | Next |
| Your view on this Scientology Website | Scientology Related Sites | Bookstore | Church of Scientology Freedom Magazine |
editor@freedommag.org
For Trademark Information
|
