Standard

Mental health LTD should be covered under the Mental Health Parity Act

Reviewed by Kim V. on February 10th 2017   Verified Policyholder
My company contracted with Standard for our short and long term disability policies. In Jan 2014 I was on STD, which turned into LTD with a waiting period, which was tough but at least I got approved and paid. I also had to deal with them constantly sending me forms to fill out in order to update them on my condition, but they never harassed me about anything. I spoke to someone in their mental health department and was very open and honest with her, as difficult as it was, and they were great about working with me. My only complaint is the same one that another commenter above had; mental health LTD should be covered under the Mental Health Parity Act, the same way that health insurance policies are. I have completely depleted my entire $80,000 401k savings in order to live and get continued care because my not only did my ACA policy not comply with the mental health parity provisions, which I am speaking to a lawyer about, but the premiums and deductibles were so high it ended up being just a very expensive discount program. Ironically I am studying to get my life and health ins. license. I would love to start some kind of movement to get parity to apply to mental health LTD benefits as well. I only needed three years to get to a point where I could function in the world again, which is a lot less time and money for a lot of cancer treatments, for example.