Regarding the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act

For Immediate Release
Date: April 14, 1999

Statement of Russ Newman, Ph.D., J.D.
Executive Director for Professional Practice
American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association (APA) applauds Senators Pete Domenici and Paul Wellstone for their continued fight to provide parity coverage for mental health disorders. The "Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" marks another important step forward in the battle for nondiscriminatory mental health benefits coverage by tightening the requirements of the 1996 mental health parity act.

Most importantly, the "Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" will provide parity for the number of hospital days and outpatient treatment sessions for people receiving mental health treatment. Having a mental health disorder can be as serious as having a heart attack or any other debilitating, life-threatening physical health disorder. With passage of this bill, a loophole in the 1996 parity act will be closed and insurers may no longer arbitrarily limit the number of hospital days or outpatient treatment sessions for people in need of mental health care. Both Senators Domenici and Wellstone have pledged their full support to ending this sort of benefits discrimination, and we look forward to working with them to pass this important provision.

The "Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" improves the 1996 parity law in other ways. It significantly increases the number of working people who will benefit from parity by providing that insurers of businesses with 26 or more employees must meet the bill's requirements. This bill also removes the one percent premium exemption, which established a cumbersome procedure and a way for insurers to potentially circumvent the 1996 law. Furthermore, this bill allows states to enact stronger parity laws, while keeping already existing state parity laws.

The "Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" needs improvement, however, and its passage as a "next step" must not be an excuse to do more. We can do better than providing full parity for a random list of diagnoses, based on a belief that they are "biologically-based," as the bill currently does. The bottom line is that there are many Americans who suffer debilitating and severe mental health disorders that are not on this list -- and they and their families do not care whether their illnesses are considered "biologically-based" or not. They want and deserve equal coverage. The APA will continue to seek nondiscriminatory coverage for all persons who suffer from mental health disorders, regardless of the reason for their suffering.