From the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press and elsewhere:

Congress is close to approving legislation that would require group health insurance plans to provide better health insurance coverage of mental illnesses, making it comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses. But hurdles remain.

The House and Senate passed different versions of the legislation Tuesday, and supporters were scrambling in the waning days of the congressional session to cobble together a single mental health bill that could be approved by both houses.

The two chambers agree on the substance of the legislation, which requires equivalence, or parity, in the coverage of mental and physical ailments. Federal law now allows insurers to discriminate, and many do so, by setting higher co-payments or stricter limits on mental health benefits.

President Bush, business groups, insurance companies and mental health advocates all support the measure.

See also: End the disparity — Las Vegas Sun

The challenge for Congress is to find time before it takes its recess for the elections to work out the differences between the House and Senate bills. There are remaining questions, such as how to pay for the extra coverage publicly funded health care programs would offer, and whether to pass the legislation as one bill or as part of a larger one.

We believe Congress should make resolving these questions a priority. Otherwise, years of work to end the disparity — a polite term for discrimination — will have to start over.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 3:13 am and is filed under insurance, law, mental health, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post