The bipartisan Roukema/Wise/DeFazio mental health parity bill will finish the job we started in 1996 by eliminating discrimination against children and adults with mental disorders in most private health insurance contracts in the United States. Specifically, this critically important measure will eliminate:
(A.) arbitrary day & visit limits like the 20 outpatient
visit/30 inpatient hospital day limit contained in many contracts; and
(B.) discriminatory copayments of every shape and type including
higher office copayments, hospital deductibles, co-insurance requirements,
etc.
As you know, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-204) already prohibits discriminatory lifetime and annual dollar limits.
The new legislation specifically eliminates provisions that permit exemptions from parity. Finally, H.R. 3568 strikes down discriminatory limits against substance abuse and addictive disorders as well.
IT'S CHEAP SAY INDEPENDENT STUDIES - LESS THAN 1%: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will soon issue a study finding that in systems already using managed care, "implementing parity results in minimal (less than 1 %) increase in total health care costs during a I -year period." This is consistent with a March 1998 study published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which found that states that have already enacted parity (Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Rhode Island) experienced health insurance premium increases of "less than one percent" to a high of 2 percent.
IT'S FAIR: No other health conditions have explicit insurance limits applied to them. Why should mental disorders be treated any differently from cancer, diabetes, or heart disease?
IT'S EFFECTIVE: We have made tremendous advances in the diagnosis, recognition and treatment of mental illnesses in the last 25 years (in part due to federally financed biomedical research). Specifically, the treatment "success rate" for major clinical depression, obsessive- compulsive disorder and manic depression exceeds 80%!! Even 60% of people with severe schizophrenia can be successfully treated (meaning that people with this illness experience significant increases in functional capabilities and significantly reduced symptomotology).