Mental Health Care and National Health Insurance : A Philosophy of and an Approach to Mental Health Care for the Future

The burial societies of the Romans were, essentially, private group insurance programs. So were the protection funds of medieval guilds. Largely through the efforts of labor unions, by 1968 more than two-thirds of the labor force in U.S. industry was covered by group life and health insurance plans mostly provided (as fringe benefits) by employers. Today the proportion is even higher, and the establishment of national health insurance, to be sponsored by government, is being debated in the halls of Congress. Complete medical care for the citizenry, with health professionals partly or wholly salaried by a government agency, is now standard in many coun­ tries, including those of eastern Europe, most of the British commonwealth (including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand), several Latin American countries, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, and of course China, the USSR, and eastern Europe. The major alternative scheme, in which the government provides reimbursement for private care, is employed by several other West­ ern nations, including Norway, Denmark, Austria, West Germany, and Spain. Both of these methods of government coverage exist for certain groups in the United States: the former for military personnel, service-connected or impecunious veterans, and the indigent mentally ill; the latter for those cov­ ered under the 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act. However, most health insurance in the United States is private, much of it operating on a group basis. Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Overview....Pages 3-16 Mental Illness/Emotional Problems....Pages 17-22 What Conditions Should Be Covered?....Pages 23-32 Extent of Coverage; Liabilities of Limited Coverage....Pages 33-48 Who Should Provide Mental Health Care?....Pages 49-111 Mental Health Care and Its Relationship to General Medical-Surgical Care of the Future....Pages 113-126 The Poor Image of Psychotherapy as a Roadblock to Coverage: A Corrected View and Some Thoughts on Validation....Pages 127-137 Attitudes That Affect Mental Health Care Coverage; The Psychiatrist in Perspective....Pages 139-141 Epilogue....Pages 143-164 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 Richard H. Beinecke and Bertram S. Brown....Pages 167-204 Robert L. DuPont....Pages 205-206 Henry A. Foley....Pages 207-215 Robert W. Gibson....Pages 217-226 Milton Greenblatt....Pages 227-239 Zigmond M. Lebensohn....Pages 241-252 Judd Marmor....Pages 253-256 Philip R. A. May....Pages 257-259 Mildred Mitchell-Bateman....Pages 261-268 Morris B. Parloff....Pages 269-286 Jack Weinberg and Theodora Fine....Pages 287-303 Back Matter....Pages 305-312