BOSTON - Mary walks into a room and all eyes turn to her.

Until five years ago, people used to see a tall and thin blonde with a contagious smile.

They still stare, but now, according to her sister, Kristen Brouker of Lee, they see at a sickly and sad 22-year-old living with multiple eating disorders.

Brouker, a legislative aide for Lenox Democrat Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, talked about her sister at the State House yesterdayrecognizing National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

"There’s moments where she’s so disillusioned and there’s nothing behind her eyes," Brouker, 25, said after the event. "It’s not Mary anymore."

On a leave of absence from college, Mary is still covered under her father’s medical insurance, which Brouker said only provides limited coverage. Still, she says, it is better than other plans that don’t cover eating disorders.

"I can’t imagine it being worse than it already is, but I can’t fathom not getting any coverage," Brouker said.

State Rep. Kay Khan, D-Newton, is pushing for a bill to require Massachusetts insurance companies to recognize eating disorders as biological illnesses and fully cover all treatment.

The bill would amend the Mental Health Parity Law passed in 2000, which requires insurance agencies to cover what are considered "biologically based" mental illnesses, such as depression due to a chemical imbalance.

"Eating disorders have not gotten the attention they should," Khan said after the event. "If we don’t address it early on, this problem escalates and becomes more costly down the road."

The bill would use the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of eating disorders, which includes different degrees of severity of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and compulsive overeating.

The bill is under independent financial analysis before it returns to the Joint Committee on Financial Services, Khan said. The committee can move the bill to the Legislature or reject it.

"Research we’ve done shows it’s not really going to make it more costly to insurance companies," she said after the event. "If it does, (the cost) is minimal."

Other legislators said access to proper care should have no price tag.

"People who are treated can be a better parent, a better spouse and a better employee," said Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham. "It’s hard to quantify those figures in dollars."

Although the climate has changed, healthcare professionals argue there are still many myths about eating disorders.

Newton resident Dr. Catherine Steiner Adair said many still see eating disorders as "self-indulgent" and "frivolous behavior."

"The thinking was, ’That’s just a bunch of rich girls sticking their fingers down their throats,’" Adair said at the event. "In fact, it’s the psychiatric illness with the highest mortality rate."

Adair said patients need three to six months of intensive care to recover. Most hospitals allow them 10 days, she said.

"As soon as they leave the hospital, they get sick again," she said. "The longer you have it, the more likely you are to die from it."

Professionals argued eating disorder patients have the same right to benefits as people with other life-threatening illnesses.

"It’s not to say insurance companies don’t provide benefits for a certain amount, but it’s not like (the benefits) of someone who had a cardiac disorder or cancer," said Maggie Moran, vice president of Marketing and Contracting for Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham.

Walden is the only facility in New England with a combination of an inpatient eating disorder unit, an outpatient program, a residential program and a partial hospitalization program.