The nation's lawmakers in Washington and President Obama earlier this month hailed the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. They focused much of the fanfare on stepping up efforts to cure cancer and Alzheimer's disease, devoting resources to battling the opioid epidemic and improving access to mental health treatment.
All of those are important elements of the act. The increase in resources to combat and prevent addiction to drugs is especially important for our region - one of the hardest-hit by the deadly epidemic.
But the bill also contains provisions that could be of help to a segment of the public struggling with another issue - eating disorders. The legislation included many of the most prominent pieces of what was known as the Anna Westin Act, a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., according to a report by the Charleston Gazette-Mail. The intended upshot of those provisions is to expand treatment options for the millions of Americans, including up to 60,000 West Virginians, who will be plagued by eating disorders at some point in their lifetimes. Likely the most crucial aspect of the measure is to clarify existing law to say health insurance plans must cover inpatient treatment for patients with eating disorders.
For a state like West Virginia, which currently has no inpatient facilities for eating disorders, the measure could pave the way for the development of inpatient and residential eating disorder treatment facilities, Dr. Jessica Luzier told the Gazette-Mail. She is clinical director at the West Virginia University Disordered Eating Center of Charleston.
The act co-sponsored by Capito was named for Anna Westin. Westin was a Minnesota native who struggled with anorexia for five years and died at age 21. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating are among the most common eating disorders. "This legislation will have a profound impact on the millions of Americans experiencing eating disorders and will help ensure they will not be denied access to the same mental health services as those facing other types of illnesses," Capito said after the Cures act was passed.
Both Capito and Luzier hope the guarantee of health insurance coverage will lead to creation of inpatient treatment centers in the state because they are crucial to helping patients with severe eating disorders. As Luzier noted, many people with eating disorders go without treatment, and finding help is doubly tough if no facilities are available nearby. Let's hope this new law will change that.