Executive Summary

On October 10, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is expected to mark up the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (HR 1424), which would extend parity to both mental health and addictions treatment services. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is the final committee that must approve the bill before it can go to the House floor for a vote. Both the House Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees have approved the bill without any amendments to modify the bill, and it is important that the Energy and Commerce Committee do the same. The National Council urges all members in districts whose representatives sit on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee to tell them to support HR 1424 without amendments.

Action Needed

The National Council urges all members in districts whose representatives sit on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee to call their Representatives and ask them to support passage of HR 1424 without amendments when the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee votes on the bill.

What Should You Say?

I am calling to urge Representative ____ to support passage of HR 1424 without amendment when it comes before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.

Please let the National Council know if you contact your Representative on this issue. Contact Allison Fort at allisonf@nccbh.org to let us know you participated and share the response you received.

Background

Introduced on March 7 by Representatives Kennedy and Ramstad, HR 1424 expands upon the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which established parity for annual and lifetime dollar limits, requiring group health plans that offer benefits for mental health and addictions treatment to do so on the same terms as care for other diseases. It is modeled after the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, which covers members of Congress and other federal employees and which implemented parity in mental health and addictions treatment coverage in 2001. The legislation closes the loopholes that allow plans to charge higher co-payments, coinsurance, deductibles, and maximum out-of-pocket limits and impose lower day and visit limits on mental health and addictions treatment.

On September 18, the Senate passed its mental health and addictions treatment parity bill, the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 (S 558), unanimously by voice vote.

Introduced by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Michael Enzi (D-WY), and Pete Domenici (R-NM) on February 12, S 558 amends two laws - the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) - and expands upon the existing 1996 federal parity law. The Senate bill also includes prohibitions on unequal financial requirements for mental health and addictions treatment such as co-payments and deductibles.

The bill originally contained a provision to provide for comparability regarding day and visit limits by preempting any numerical limits on coverage in state laws whether the limits are part of a parity law or a mandated minimum mental health benefit. This provision, developed in concert with representatives from the business, health, and insurance communities, generated a great deal of opposition from many mental health and addiction treatment advocates, who feared it would weaken existing state parity provisions.

Under a deal reached late on August 2, the Senate parity bill would preempt any minimums on state coverage that were lower than the federal law, but would not preempt any state requirements on higher levels of coverage.  Removal of the preemption language brings the Senate parity bill closer in line with the Houses parity bill, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (HR 1424), though other differences still exist.

The National Council supports the passage of parity legislation in both chambers, and hopes that the subsequent conference process will produce a bill that will expand parity for mental health and addictions treatment.