Parity Action Group, American Society of Addiction Medicine, USA.
J Psychoactive Drugs. 2010 Jun;42(2):115-20. doi: 10.1080/02791072.2010.10400683.
Parity, the idea that insurance coverage for the treatment of addiction should be on a par with insurance coverage for the treatment of other medical illnesses, is not a new idea, but the path to achieving "real parity" has been a long, hard and complex journey. Action by Congress to pass major parity legislation in 2008 was a huge step forward, but does not mean that parity has been achieved. Parity has required a paradigm shift in the understanding of addiction as a biological illness: many developments of science and policy changes by professional organizations and governmental entities have contributed to that paradigm shift. Access to adequate treatment for patients must acknowledge the paradigm shift reflected in parity as it has evolved to the current point: that this biological illness is widespread, that it is important that it be treated effectively, that appropriate third party payment for physician-provided or physician-supervised addiction treatment is critical for addiction medicine to become a part of the mainstream of our nation's healthcare delivery system, and that medical specialty care provides the most effective and cost effective benefit to patients and therefore to our society.
公平性，即治疗成瘾的保险覆盖范围应与治疗其他医疗疾病的保险覆盖范围相当，这并不是一个新的理念，但实现“真正公平”的道路是漫长、艰难和复杂的。国会在 2008 年采取行动通过主要的公平立法是向前迈出的一大步，但这并不意味着已经实现了公平。公平性需要将成瘾理解为一种生物疾病的观念发生转变：科学的许多发展和专业组织及政府实体的政策变化都促成了这种观念的转变。为患者提供足够的治疗必须承认在公平性方面的观念转变，因为它已经发展到当前的阶段：这种生物疾病广泛存在，必须有效地治疗它，为医生提供或监督的成瘾治疗提供适当的第三方支付对于将成瘾医学纳入我们国家医疗保健提供系统的主流至关重要，并且医学专科护理为患者（因此也为我们的社会）提供最有效和最具成本效益的益处。
