March 15, 2001
Also see the March 21 action alert

DOMENICI AND WELLSTONE INTRODUCE
NEW MENTAL HEALTH PARITY BILL
NMHA Advocacy Results in Coverage for All Mental Disorders

New bill

Today Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) introduced the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001, which provides full parity for all categories of mental health conditions listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The bill would prohibit group health plans which provide mental health benefits from imposing treatment limitations or financial requirements on the coverage of mental health conditions unless comparable limits are imposed on medical and surgical benefits. NMHA has advocated aggressively for the introduction of a full parity bill that provides coverage for all mental disorders. Both senators have cited the goal of seeing the bill enacted this year. 

Provides full parity

The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 would prohibit discriminatory limits on the frequency of treatment, number of visits, days of coverage, or other limits on the duration or scope of treatment in private health insurance coverage for ALL mental disorders. It would also rule out higher copayments, deductibles, coinsurance, other cost sharing,
and limits on the total amount payable for mental health care in private coverage for all such conditions. In closing these loopholes in the 1996 federal parity law, the bill draws no distinction among diagnoses.

Repeals 1% exemption and sunset provision

The new Domenici/Wellstone measure also eliminates an exemption in current law. Under the 1996 parity law, insurance companies and other firms that experienced an increase of more than 1 percent in their mental health costs could be exempt from the law. This new measure repeals that provision. It also repeals the provision of law under which the 1996 parity requirements would expire on September 30, 2001.

Reduces small business exemption

Companies with 50 or fewer workers are exempt from the 1996 parity law. The new legislation would increase the number of people benefiting from mental health parity by limiting the “small-business exemption” to companies with 25 or fewer employees.

Still not a mandate

The new measure is similar to the 1996 mental health parity law in that it is NOT a mandate. The legislation says, in essence, that IF a company offers mental health benefits, only then would it be subject to the new parity requirements.

Next steps

NMHA sees this legislation as a huge step towards ensuring affordable and accessible treatment for adults and children with mental disorders, and will call on every Mental Health Association to help line up co-sponsors and push the bill toward enactment. See the March 21 action alert to find out what you can do.

See NMHA's official statement on the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001.

For more information, please contact Ralph Ibson, NMHA Vice President of Government Affairs, at 703-838-7502 or mailto:ribson@nmha.org. 

For more information about the National Mental Health Association and its many programs and activities, visit the web site at http://www.nmha.org.