House GOP Will Force Vote on Bipartisan, Senate-Authored Mental Health Parity Bill
GOP Proposal Also Would Protect Employers from Having to Pay for Abortion Services Through Mental Health Benefits
Washington,
Mar 5, 2008 -
At a time when 47 million Americans are without quality health care insurance, House Democratic leaders are prepared to make matters even worse today by bringing to the floor legislation that would saddle employers with more costly mandates that would only serve to reduce coverage for American workers and their families.
The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act is riddled with costly new federal mandates on employers, many of which exceed those applied to other types of similarly-severe medical illnesses. For example, under the bill, virtually every mental illness defined by the mental health profession would be required to be covered by plans, even though most states currently do not mandate this type of coverage. Amazingly, the Democrats’ bill applies no similar requirement on any other category of benefits covered by a plan, including hospital services, physician services, and prescription drug benefits.
In order to protect the employer-provided health insurance system and the tens of millions of Americans who depend on it, House Republicans today will offer the bipartisan, Senate-authored mental health parity bill as a motion to recommit proposal to ensure real parity between mental health and medical/surgical benefits. In fact, today’s CongressDaily AM reports that the Senate bill is the only congressional mental health parity bill that has a chance of becoming law:
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“Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is not happy with House leaders who are putting up their own version of a mental health parity bill for a floor vote today.”
“Domenici, who sponsors a Senate version with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Kennedy, said Tuesday the House vote could spell the end of his bill.”
“‘We worked very hard to convince them that we won’t get mental health parity with that bill. We can’t pass it,’” Domenici said. “‘It’s too bad, because this was a terrific bill.’”
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Instead of thrusting costly federal mandates onto employers who voluntarily provide health insurance for their workers and their families, the Republican proposal, based on the bipartisan Senate-authored measure, would:
- Not mandate that health plans cover specific mental health benefits;
- Clarify that medical management of mental health benefits is not prohibited, allowing employers to appropriately design and manage the health coverage they offer to meet their employees’ needs; and
- Assure a uniform federal rule – through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) – for the comprehensive and strong mental health parity benefits provided by the bill.
The House Republican proposal also includes language to make certain that employers are not forced to pay for abortion services through mental health benefits they provide to their employees.
House Democrats today will face an important choice: do they want to see a mental health parity bill become law, or don’t they? If they do, they will join House Republicans in supporting the bipartisan Senate-authored measure that, as Sen. Domenici noted, has the chance of actually becoming law. If they do not, they will reject the GOP proposal, killing the issue of mental health parity for years to come.
