The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Iowa, also called NAMI Iowa because of its affiliation with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, has continued to work toward equality for the people it serves. The group's most recent battle is for mental health insurance parity, a proposal that's faced harsh criticism in Iowa because of its strong ties to the insurance industry. The group's director, Margaret Spout, sat down to tell us more.
Q: What is the history of your organization?
A: In 1984 the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill was formed in Madison, Wis. Two mothers who had children with schizophrenia decided there was a need to have an organization that could be responsive to family needs, consumer needs and advocacy needs related to people with serious mental illnesses. NAMI Iowa came into being in 1986. Our mission is to end discrimination against people with mental illness and provide services and education and advocacy to their families and the community at large.
Q: What issues are you dealing with right now?
A: One of our primary issues is mental health insurance parity; that means access to insurance coverage for people with mental illness. It's not available on an equity basis for people with mental illness. There is still quite a bit of belief in the community that insurance for mental health is something that is too costly to provide. I believe it's costly to not provide coverage, to have people end up seeking disability when earlier access might have helped them to have care. Hopefully, by having mental health insurance parity, they would gain full citizenship.
Q: How are you fighting disparity?
A: We have had it on our legislative agenda for a while. What we're trying to do is just educate the public. Because what happens is a person who has [a mental] illness usually receives their coverage through Medicaid because they can't get it any other way. So there is a public cost there. Iowa is an insurance state, which I think has caused us more difficulty passing legislation. It has been an uphill battle. Many other states have passed some form of parity, some of which are good and some are marginal. We have hope Iowa will do this one of these years.
Q: Why is this issue of interest to the business community?
A: We know that one in four families has a loved one who will experience mental health problems sometime in their lifetime. This issue crosses all income levels and all job markets. None of us are immune to this particular illness. One area that is still a serious issue is employment opportunities. That's an awareness that hiring somebody with mental illness is not any different than hiring them with any other disability. It's a flexibility. There may be times for the employer to provide for time off to get through an episode of some kind.
Q. Why is Allianz involved in this event?
A. We've been involved in golf by sponsoring a few of the players on the senior tour. We've had a good experience with them.
Allianz is a large company on a global basis, but we're not well-known in the U.S. We've had conversations in the past about how to develop better name recognition. We started exploring golf, and talked to the PGA about sponsoring an event.
They told us if you're going to do it, do it in Des Moines. We had other options, like the Silverado event in California that Transamerica just dropped, and an event in Dallas. But I talked to the pros I had gotten to know, and they were unanimous: Do it in Des Moines. They had a great experience at the Senior Open.
As we are based in Minnesota, we'd rather hold it in Minneapolis, but there's nothing available there. It's more convenient for us to do this in Des Moines than it would be to hold it in Tampa or Dallas.
We want to establish this as one of the premier stops on the senior tour. The purse size is one of the largest outside of the majors.
