Mental Health Parity Passes Senate, Poised to Pass House

The Mental Health Parity Act (S. 558), a bill that requires health insurance coverage for mental illness to be equal to that of physical illness, passed the Senate on Tuesday with unanimous consent. In the House, a similar bill called the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act (HR 1424) passed the House Ways and Means health subcommittee on Wednesday.

“The Senate passage of S. 558 ends 10 years of gridlock surrounding mental health parity legislation, moving us closer to providing equitable coverage for American workers and their families with mental and substance use disorders,” Pamela Greenberg, chairwoman of the Coalition for Fairness in Mental Illness Coverage, said in a press release Wednesday. “The legislation has unprecedented support from consumers, providers, hospitals, employers and health insurers.  We can’t miss this opportunity to provide 113 million Americans with equitable coverage.”

Minnesota has factored heavily in efforts to pass the legislation.

Read moreMinnesota Rep. Jim Ramstad is the sponsor of the House bill (with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.), and Wellstone Action has been heavily lobbying both the Senate and House in support of the measure. Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar co-sponsored the Senate version.

In 1995, Minnesota became one of the first states to enact mental health parity legislation and one of the few to include substance abuse.

The House version is slightly stronger than the Senate version. It more broadly defines the mental illnesses insurance would cover. Neither bill would mandate mental health care coverage, but would make insurers that cover both mental and physical health care provide comparable copays and deductibles.

Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson, Tim Walz and James Oberstar have joined Ramstad as co-sponsors of the bill, and are among the 266 other representatives who  co-sponsored the bill.

For another view, read Isaac Peterson’s “Wellstone, Ramstad mental health parity efforts may soon bear fruit.”