Legislative
Alert: May 2007
Mental Health Parity Act
By Hugh Brady
Two national mental health organizations,
Mental Health America and the Bazelon Center for
Mental Health Law have joined NAMI in urging
mental health advocates to contact their
legislators and ask them to support HR 1424, the
“Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addition
Equity Act.”
Background:
(From Mental Health America’s website
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/ )
Employer-provided health plans have for years
routinely set stricter treatment limits and
imposed higher out-of-pocket costs on mental
health care than any other medical care. The
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 took a first
step toward ending such discriminatory practices
and established the principle that mental health
benefits should be “on par” with medical and
surgical benefits. But the measure outlawed
only the use of disparate annual or lifetime
dollar limits between mental health coverage and
coverage of other illnesses. Insurance plans
still routinely set rigid, arbitrary caps on how
many mental-health treatment sessions or days of
hospital care they will cover regardless of
medical need. And those who “get in the door,”
often face far higher out-of-pocket costs than
for treatment of any other health condition.
Congressional efforts to end those
discriminatory practices to close the loopholes
in the 1996 act have been thwarted for the last
six years.
The Wellstone Act:
HR 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and
Addition Equity Act, will go a long way toward
requiring insurance providers to provide mental
health benefits on the same basis as they
provide regular medical benefits. According to
the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law’s
website (http://www.bazelon.org/
) the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction
Equity Act of 2007 expands the Mental Health
Parity Act of 1996 by prohibiting group health
plans from imposing treatment or financial
limitations on mental health benefits that are
different from those applied to medical/surgical
services. The legislation applies only to group
health plans already providing mental health
benefits and exempts plans sponsored by small
businesses of fewer than 50 employees.
A Note of Caution:
Illinois currently has very good state
legislation on mental health parity, and it will
be complemented by HR 1424, which allows states
(such as Illinois) to enact mental health parity
legislation which is stronger that the proposed
new federal law, which Illinois’ parity law is.
There is, however, a companion bill to HR
1424 in the US Senate. The Senate bill is much
more restrictive than the House version, and
would prohibit states (such as Illinois) from
enacting parity legislation which is stronger
that the federal law. If the Senate version of
the bill passes it would seem that Illinois
residents would lose some of the benefits which
they currently have.
What Needs to Be Done:
Take a moment and write a short note to your
US Congressman. For most of us in NAMI
Barrington Area, that would be either
Representative Melissa Bean for the 8th
Congressional District or Representative Mark
Kirk from the 10th. Urge them to
support HR 1424, the Wellstone Parity Act.
It would also be worth writing a similar
letter to Senator Durbin and Senator Obama. But
if you write to our Senators, urge them to
support the House version of the bill because as
it seems, the Senate version would result in a
reduction in benefits for Illinois residents.
For information on how to write to your
legislators, see the NAMIBA website at:
http://www.namibarringtonarea.org/advocacy_articles/advocating_how_to/advocacy_overview.html
