The data was part of a larger health care issues survey, the Mercer/Foster Higgins "National Survey of Employer Sponsored Health Plans," which took place from July through September in 1998. The major findings include:

• Nearly half of those employers subject to the Act were already in compliance before the January 1, 1998 effective date.

• Slightly more than a quarter of the respondents retained separate mental health limits, but raised them, or included mental health expenses with other expenses in determining annual or lifetime dollar limits.

• There had been concern in the mental health community that Mental Health Parity Act and similar parity mandates might result in employers dropping mental health coverage altogether, or increasing other limits in compensation. The report indicates, however, that only a small proportion of employers took such actions.

• Among employers who made changes as a result of the Act, the large majority (86 percent) indicated that they made no compensatory changes to their benefits, primarily because expected cost increases were judged minimal or nonexistent.

The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, also known as the Domenici-Wellstone Parity Act, is a landmark law that for the first time declared that discriminatory insurance policies against coverage for serious brain disorders are unjust. Although the law does not provide complete parity, it equates annual and lifetime limits for mental illnesses to those for medical/surgical coverage. However, due to other provisions in the law that allow health plans to manipulate the number of inpatient and outpatient days, copays and deductibles, the impact for consumers has been minimal. For more information on the MHPA go to the NAMI website at http://www.nami.org/policy.htm.

For more information on this survey and background information, go to http://www.samhsa.gov/press/99/1999.htm on the SAMHSA website.

NAMI has more than 1,200 state and local affiliates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Canada.