Sadly, No Insurance Company Covers Mental Health Problems
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Monday, August 13, 2018 DECCAN HERALD 3 Actor Tara portrays the life and Metrolife on the move work of Savitribai Phule P4 Sadly, no insurance company covers mental health problems Despite the wide prevalence of depression and Mental Health Care Act 2017 SANDHYA J, HR man- other psychiatric conditions in India, no policies For the first time in our history, it legally acknowledges ager, Medibox Digital an individual’s right to mental health care, while pro- Solutions Private Lim- exist, Metrolife discovers tecting and promoting said rights during the delivery of ited says, “Having healthcare. It empowers individuals and recognises their healthy employees right to make informed decisions about their mental is key when main- e could start off in to have any policy to cover ance in India. health. taining produc- the usual way — mental illnesses. tivity levels at work. W Company 3 (Star Health and depression is the Metrolife called up a few Medibox organises vari- great plague of our era, health insurance companies Allied Insurance) Where Companies show ous games and network- people are scared to talk and got conflicting answers “We do have some policies are the the way ing events on a weekly about mental health with a common summa- relating to mental health and fortnightly basis. issues and lives are being ry — mental health is not a but it all depends on the re- funds? “We are getting a lot of requests ‘Fun Fridays’ help the lost because of this. priority in this country. cords of the person and the from large corporate bodies to take employees to bond better According to a World history of their disease. If According to training for their personnel, mainly with their colleagues; Health Organisation re- Company 1 (Apollo Munich you send us the reports, we estimates, India human resouce staff and team man- improving co-worker re- port, an estimated 56 Health Insurance) shall forward them to our is currently agers. This is called Suicide Preven- lationship has direct im- million people suffer from “We don’t have any such doctors. They will be able only spending tion Gatekeeper Training and lets pact on mental health depression in India. 38 policy.” to suggest to you the right 0.6% of its them identify possible issues and of employees.” She says million suffer from anxiety policy to take.” national health guide the affected people,” says Dr V that they also have coun- disorders. Company 2 (Religare Health budget on men- Senthil Kumar, additional professor, selling teams to help em- In other words, 20 per Insurance) Alliance Insurance Brokers tal health care. department of psychiatry. ployees in distress. cent of our population suf- “We don’t have any such “A person who needs High cost of therapy deters many from opting for it. fers from a mental illness. policy and nor will any psychiatric treatment in Only 10-12 per cent of other insurance provider in case of trauma associated Confused, we also spoke lot of clauses which makes born with some develop- atric Hospital, “I have had a want to let their condition them seek aid. Mental the country. It is a critical with accidents will get to some insurance agents it virtually impossible for mental disorders/mental lot of patients complaining be known in their places distress is believed to be a illness which is complete- reimbursement. This is about what the guidelines someone to get a claim issues should be covered about the cost of therapy of work so taking off from key reason why one student ly excluded from the list of subject to the policy taken said about providing mental reimbursed for mental under insurance automati- and how they are not able to work for sessions is another commits suicide every hour diseases covered by insur- and insurance company’s health care in India and illnesses. They follow this cally but this was also done afford it.” problem.” in the country. approval. Individual pol- the responses left us no tactic almost all the time away with.” He says that a session He adds that illnesses Now do we have your icy does not cover mental more enlightened. but mental health is espe- “This exclusion of all psy- can cost anywhere between like depression and attention? health illnesses since cially targeted.” chosomatic disorders and Rs 500-Rs 1,500 and the anxiety are not treated as In a country with such a insurance is all about Agent 1 those related to psychiatry number of sessions vary seriously as other major large prevalence of mental covering unforeseen events. “There is a list of diseases Agent 2 from health insurance has from person to person. So, disorders. issues, it would only be Issues like depression that are covered by different “There is no provision for hit the patients hard and an average patient spends When patients talk about natural to expect that and hypertension can be companies. Some of them providing insurance for curbed their access to thera- anywhere between Rs costs, doctors impress the institutional support would covered under tailormade do show mental illness mental health in India; none py and aid.” 5,000- Rs 10,000 per month long-term benefits of thera- be robust to tackle this chal- group medical policy, sub- in that but no one knows of the companies do this. Says Dr Vijay Mehtry, for therapy. py upon them. lenge. But surprisingly, no ject to the person’s capacity about this; it is just there Earlier, there was a provi- consultant psychia- “It is not just the insurance provider seems Dr Vijay Mehtry to work.” as a formality. They have a sion which said that a child trist, Manasa Neuropsychi- money. Most of them don’t Rajitha Menon The lowly Mahua is giviving Style India a sophisticated drink EXCHANGE A conference For handicraft lovers in Bengaluru he Spring-Summer Collection’18 of T‘The Monkey Brain Co.’ by Vijayta M debates why Ratusaria and Akshita Ratusaria focuses on the free-spirited handicraft lovers. the countrry Hand embroidery, hand painting and block printing on fabrics are the high- has so little by lights of the collection with white, maroon, orange and blue being way of great primarily used. Price: Rs 3,200 onwards heritage Available: www.themonkeybrainco.com liquors e have all heard Wof Soma – one of ancient India’s scientific achievements like the helicopter (the Pushpaka Vimana) and the weapon of mass destruc- tion (the Brahmastra), but why does India not have heritage liquor like tequila (from Mexico) or sake (from Japan) today? Whether India can produce a great heritage Aussie swimwear liquor was the issue debated The discussion at Bangalore International Centre covered a wide range of topics, including the production of high quality at the Bangalore Interna- liquor from Mahua flowers. in India tional Centre on August 7; unseeker it would seem from the pro- The distilled spirit pro- colonised by the more pu- SSwimwear, ceedings that one is already duced by a pot-still retains As colonisers, the Portuguese, the French and the Span- ritanical British, driven as the chic and being manufactured from flavours of the original ish were different from the British. While they were by they were by the Protestant affordable the Mahua flower, the only material from which it and large more tyrannical, they tried to take their own and mercantile ethic. The Australian flower-based distilled spirit comes, while a column-still Catholic culture to the colonised, and that includes their disapproving moral gaze swimwear and to rely on the sugar present produces industrial-qual- enjoyment of the ‘good things of life’. What Goans are that we find everywhere in resortwear in the flower without other ity alcohol. Indian Made today can’t be dissociated from what the Portuguese India is also to be found in brand, forays sweetening additives. Liquors (IML), like cashew made them. abundance in the United into the Indian The participants in the and palm fenny, are made States. market. The discussion were Desmond in pot-stills. The British tended to see Spring-Summer Nazareth, who is manufac- The alcohol produced in graphical origin (Mexico). recent of heritage liquors in desi liquor only an oppor- collection is in- turing a high quality dis- a column-still is flavoured When Desmond produc- or IMLs from India, it is tunity to tax and the Indian fluenced by the tilled Mahua drink, anthro- with an additive to produce es liquor from the agave the only one to have made government has operated beach culture pologist Rahul Srivastava, various kinds of Indian plant, he can only call it headway as an interna- in virtually the same way Bold and dramatic of Australia and and Jhampan Mookerjee, Made Foreign Liquors ‘agave liquor’ and not ‘te- tional brand. Can it have since they left. he latest collection ‘le Plissé by includes one who describes himself as (IMFL); Indian whisky, quila’. ‘Feni’ similarly, has anything to do with Goa There are a whole lot T‘Red by Purva’ is all about power piece and mix a ‘desi daru pundit’. The rum, brandy and gin are to be produced in Goa to be being under the Portuguese of distilling opportunities dressing for women. From cape one- and match options for women and session was moderated by all simply industrial-grade called ‘feni’; cashew liquor while the rest of India was in India, we learned, and piece to frilled pants, the new line is children. the irrepressible Shobha alcohol with water and produced in Andhra or Kar- under the British? among them are palm from feminine yet structured.