Senate Passes Mental Health Parity Bill

Under a bill recently passed by the Senate, health insurers would be required to provide the same level of coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses as they do for physical ailments.

The legislation, S.B. 558, (at the THOMAS Web site, type "S 558" in the search box after selecting "Bill Number") which is known as the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007, does not mandate that health plans provide coverage for mental illness. However, if insurers do provide this type of coverage, they would have to provide coverage that is equal in amount and scope to other benefits offered under that insurer's plans, according to the legislation passed by the Senate on Sept. 18.

The bill does not apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees, and it would provide exemptions if coverage costs for mental illness and substance abuse exceeded certain levels. Specifically, the legislation would exempt group health plans and companies if their costs for covering treatment of mental illnesses and substance abuse were to exceed 2 percent of total plan costs in the first year or 1 percent in subsequent years. It also would not preempt state mental health parity laws.

Nevertheless, the legislation, if enacted, would improve coverage for about 113 million Americans by ensuring that health plans do not place more restrictive conditions on mental health coverage than they do on medical or surgical coverage, according to proponents of the legislation.

In addition, the bill would provide parity for financial requirements, such as deductibles, copayments, annual and lifetime expenditure limits, and treatment limitations, including the number of covered hospital days and visits.

"I am elated that the Senate has at long last passed a broad mental health parity bill," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the chief author of the bill in a prepared statement. "It is a needed next step toward ending the insurance discrimination imposed on millions of people with serious but treatable mental health problems. … We need to lift the restrictive standard being applied to mental health coverage and allow these diseases of the brain to be treated under the broader standard applied to medical and surgical coverage."

According to the statement, nearly 58 million adults in the United States suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year, and of these adults, 6 percent have a serious mental illness. More than 30,000 suicides each year in the United States are in some way linked to mental illness.

The House Ways and Means Committee, meanwhile, recently passed a similar version of the Senate legislation. H.R. 1424 (at the THOMAS Web site, type "HR 1424" in the search box after selecting "Bill Number") contains a broader range of mental health conditions insurers would have to cover. It also addresses out-of-network benefits.