CONGRESS PASSES MENTAL HEALTH PARITY
The House of Representatives joined the Senate
on Friday October 3rd in passing the $7 billion economic
rescue plan and along with it Mental Health Parity. The
bill requires group health plans to cover treatment for
mental illness at parity with all other medical conditions.
Both the House and Senate had advanced a final agreement
on legislation known as the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici
Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 on
September 25, 2008, but the bills become entangled in a
broader legislative struggle over how to pay for the tax
revenues that would be reduced by this measure and others.
In order for the parity bill to go to the
President, the House and Senate had to pass it in the same
format. With time running short, Congress turned to the
$700 billion economic rescue plan as a vehicle, with the
rescue plan considered as a substitute amendment to the
mental health parity bill that Congress has been working
to pass for the past few years. With the passage in the
Senate and House of Representatives approval is pending
by the President, for it to be signed into law. President
Bush has gone on record in favor of the parity bill.
The legislation does not mandate that group
health plans cover mental health or addiction treatment,
but if they do, the treatment limits and financial requirements
could be no more restrictive than those that apply to medical
or surgical benefits. A 1996 law had required parity in
setting annual and lifetime spending limits, but insurers
found ways to circumvent it. The new bill closes loopholes
by requiring parity in deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket
expenses — and in setting treatment limitations, such
as the maximum number of doctor visits and days of coverage
allowed.
Currently, 42 states including New Jersey
(parity for biologically based mental illnesses) provide
for some form of mental health parity, as does the federal
employees' health benefit program. But 82 million people
work for employers who self-insure, which means they are
exempt from state parity laws. An additional 31 million
are in other plans that do not have to offer equal coverage.
The legislation is the culmination of more
than a decade of lobbying by NAMI and other mental health
advocates and several members of Congress.
