Mental Health Parity Bills Reintroduced; Grassroots Support Needed

Bazelon Center Press Statement on Introduction of Parity Legislation (2/27/03) Current Co-sponsors of Parity Legislation Read the Bills (in HTML format) S.486 H.R. 953 Legislative Update: 107th Congress Leaves Unfinished Business (12/18/02) Bazelon Center Mourns the Death of Senator Paul Wellstone (10/25/02) The Bazelon Center's Mental Health Policy Reporter: The debate over mental health parity heats up and other news (9/12/02) Bazelon Center Insurance Issues Page Support the Bazelon Center. Your tax-deductible donation helps the Bazelon Center keep you informed on important developments in mental health law and policy. Not a Subscriber? Sign up now to receive action alerts and updates from the Bazelon Center.

(March 7, 2003)—The fight to end discrimination by private insurers against people with mental illnesses is heating up again as mental health parity bills were introduced last week in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) introduced "The Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" (H.R. 953, S.486). The bills—named in honor of the late Senator, a longstanding champion of mental health parity and other important mental health issues—would require health plans sponsored by employers with more than 50 employees to provide equivalent coverage for mental health services and medical/surgical health services.

The bills would require parity only in plans that already provide mental health benefits. They would not require plans to offer such benefits.

Swift enactment of the legislation would, however, close gaps in the current federal parity law and level the health insurance-coverage playing field by creating a non-discrimination policy for individuals with private health insurance who require mental health treatment. The existing parity law, which is set to expire at the end of this year, provides parity only in lifetime benefits and annual limits on services. In addition to those protections, H.R. 953 and S.486 would eliminate discriminatory limits on inpatient days, outpatient sessions, maximum out-of-pocket limits, co-payments and deductibles.

The bills would also ban arbitrary limits on services for diagnosable mental disorders by requiring insurers to cover any disorder found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the mental health field's widely accepted diagnostic reference.

Hopes were high for passage of mental health parity legislation last year. President Bush expressed support for parity in April and the relevant Senate committee unanimously approved the bill. But efforts to enact it were stymied in the 107th Congress and lawmakers only managed to extend the existing law to the end of 2003.

Currently, 162 Representatives and 24 Senators have co-sponsored the legislation, but more are needed to enact full mental health parity this year. To view current co-sponsors, please visit http://www.bazelon.org/parity/supporters.

Take Action Now

Call your Representative and Senators now. Use the toll-free parity hotline (1-866-parity4 or 1-866-727-4894) to contact members of Congress and urge them to support "The Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" (H.R. 953 and S. 486).

Dialing the hotline will connect you to the Capitol switchboard, which can direct you to your members of Congress. If you are unsure of the names of your Representative or Senators, please visit http://www.congress.org

When you reach the member's office, ask for the health legislative assistant, identify yourself as a constituent and urge your lawmakers to co-sponsor H.R. 953 (in the House) or S. 486 (in the Senate). Remind them that:

• Financial and treatment limitations in private health insurance expands the number of people who cannot access needed mental health treatment and increases the strain on already overburdened public mental health systems.
• Lost productivity due to untreated mental illness costs the US economy at least $70 billion a year, according to the Surgeon General's 1999 report on mental illness.
• The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that mental health parity would increase insurance premiums by less than one percent.
• Mental health parity is supported by more than 250 national advocacy organizations.
• Full parity for mental health services for all mental health disorders should be the standard. Congress and other federal employees already have parity for mental health services through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Why should the American public receive less?
• Parity legislation must be enacted this year. Children and adults who require mental health treatment have waited long enough for Congress to end health insurance discrimination.

If your member of Congress is already a co-sponsor, please contact him or her and express your gratitude.

Medicaid Update: Governors Remain Undecided on Bush Proposal

The National Governors Association (NGA) met last week but did not adopt an official position on the Bush Administration's Medicaid proposal. As reported in our last Action Alert, the governors' support is critical for the Bush proposal, which mental health advocates fear could severely limit access to healthcare for people with mental disabilities. Instead, the NGA agreed to form a bipartisan task force to examine Medicaid reform and to negotiate possible changes with the White House.

The Bazelon Center will closely monitor the task force's work and will provide updates as the situation develops. In the meantime, advocates are urged to maintain pressure on their states' governors to preserve the integrity of the Medicaid program. To learn how to contact your governor, please visit http://www.nga.org/governors.

More information:

• President Bush's Medicaid Reform Proposal: A Threat to Public Mental Health (2/24/03)
• Action Alert: Bush Proposal Threatens Access to Healthcare (2/20/03)