Senate Unanimously Passes Mental Health Parity Bill
On September 18, 2007, the U.S. Senate passed S. 558, the
"Mental Health Parity Act of 2007," by a unanimous
vote. That bill will ensure that Americans with employer-sponsored
health insurance and their families receive mental health
care coverage at the same level as coverage for general health
problems, including outpatient visits, copayments, and deductibles.
The bill's chief sponsors are Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA),
Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Michael Enzi (R-WY).
S. 558 was modified since its introduction earlier in the
year by deleting provisions that would have pre-empted state
mental health laws on treatment limitations and financial
requirements. This change has brought the bill much closer
to the House version, introduced by Reps. Patrick Kennedy
(D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), and is a major step forward
in the effort to enact legislation this year.
Both the Education and Labor Committee and the Ways and Means
Committee have approved the House bill, H.R. 1424. The Energy
and Commerce Committee, which shares jurisdiction on this
issue with the other two committees, has yet to act on the
bill. Proponents of H.R. 1424, including House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA), have expressed their hope that it will be considered
by the full House of Representatives this fall.
Although the issue relating to state pre-emption has been
resolved, there are still significant differences between
the House and Senate bills. For example, the House bill requires
coverage for treatment by out-of-network doctors, while the
Senate bill has no such mandate for out-of-network mental
health coverage even if a health plan has out-of-network coverage
for medical and surgical treatment. The House version also
specifies that if a plan provides mental health benefits,
then it must cover conditions provided by the health plan
with the highest average enrollment of federal employees.
Ultimately, both the Senate and the House will have to agree
and approve the same parity bill. AAGP will continue to keep
its members apprised as this legislation continues to move
through Congress and will request the help of its members
to ensure that the strongest possible mental health parity
bill gets sent to the president to be signed into law.
AAGP strongly supports non-discriminatory treatment for all
Americans with mental disorders and non-discriminatory coverage
of mental health services under all types of health benefits
programs. Arbitrary limits on coverage of mental health care
should be eliminated wherever they exist. AAGP believes that
enactment of mental health parity in the private sector would
be an important step forward toward ending discrimination
between health insurance coverage for psychiatric illness
and all other medical illnesses and achieving parity for mental
health care in all health benefit programs, including Medicare.
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