The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 (S. 543)
June 12, 2001-Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN), have introduced new legislation to eliminate health-insurance companies' discrimination between mental health and medical/surgical care. Notably, The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 (S. 543), would level the health-coverage playing field by prohibiting companies' practice of providing unequal benefits and financial requirements.
The legislation builds on the existing 1996 Parity Act (P.L. 104-204 ), which bans different lifetime and annual spending caps for mental and general health care. It would extend full parity to all individuals with a condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Specifically, S. 543 would prohibit health insurance plans that provide mental health benefits from imposing inpatient hospital day and outpatient visit limits and from applying different deductibles, co-payments, out-of-network charges and other financial requirements for mental health treatment.
Among other key provisions, the bill would amend the 1996 Parity Act to:
- eliminate the sunset provision, under which the 1996 parity law would terminate on September 30, 2001;
- increase the scope of its coverage so as to include small businesses with 25 or more employees (the 1996 Act applied only to businesses with 50 or more employees); and
- eliminate the exemption from the 1996 law currently permitted for employers who show that their health insurance premiums rose more than one percent as a result of complying with the Parity Act.
Although the bill does put health insurers on notice that mental health care should not be treated differently than general health care, S. 543 would only apply to plans that already provide mental health benefits; it would not require plans to offer such benefits.
For more details and a list of the 30 current sponsors of S. 543 (which include both New York Senators Clinton and Schumer), see the Bazelon Center's Action Alerts:
http://www.bazelon.org/alerts.html
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