For a great many Americans, the problems and inadequacies of this nation’s health care system are more than an abstraction. They are a very real and costly tragedy. There must be a better way.

From the Wall Street Journal, by way of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Families fight insurers over eating disorders

Mike Hall’s daughter, Meghan, has struggled with anorexia nervosa for the past three years. At times, her weight has dropped as low as 67 pounds — she is 5’6″ tall — and she has had to be force-fed through a tube. Once, a priest performed last rites.

During this time, Meghan, now 23, has been hospitalized for 16 months for her eating disorder and has spent two more months in an intensive outpatient program. Humana, her father’s insurance company, covered her for 10 days of hospitalization each year as a mental-health benefit. Her dad was left to pay for the rest — almost $1 million.

“I always thought that insurance would take care of my children if they got sick,” says Mr. Hall, 48, who co-owns a telecommunications consulting business in Highland Park, Ill., and has been paying insurance premiums for 25 years. “But when I needed it, I was told, ‘Sorry, you don’t qualify.'”

For years, insurance companies have been reluctant to pay for extended treatment for eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, claiming they are psychological in nature, not physiological, and should fall under mental-health coverage, which is typically limited.

Humana declined to discuss the details of Mr. Hall’s coverage, citing privacy laws. The company says its policies comply with applicable requirements under the law in states where the company operates.

Many eating-disorder advocacy groups report that they regularly receive calls from patients and families who have exhausted their insurance coverage and have racked up thousands of dollars worth of bills. Marc Lerro, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Eating Disorders Coalition, says he gets about nine calls a week from people seeking advice on how to pay for treatment. “They’re spending down their savings, mortgaging their homes, cashing in their retirement accounts,” he says.

Now, a growing number of families and patient advocates are fighting back, encouraged by medical expert opinions that say eating disorders, though a mental illness, have a biological component. Dr. Thomas R. Insel, the director of the government’s National Institute of Mental Health, wrote in a recent letter to the National Eating Disorders Association, an advocacy group based in Seattle, that anorexia has “a biological core, with genetic components.” (The letter is posted at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.) [full text]