ACA/AMHCA UPDATE: Federal Parity Law Enacted!

For more than a decade, ACA and the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) have been working with other mental health and addictive disorder advocacy organizations to gain the enactment of a federal law to help end discriminatory insurance coverage of mental health and addictive disorder services.  This goal was realized last week with the enactment of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, as part of broad economic rescue and tax policy extension legislation.  The House approved a Senate-passed economic recovery package on Friday, October 3rd, by a vote of 263 to 171, and that afternoon President Bush signed the legislation into law.  

The parity law’s requirements will apply to group health plans for plan years beginning one year from now.  Starting then, health plans covering more than 50 employees will be prohibited from using different deductibles, copayment requirements, or treatment limits for mental health and addictive disorder services than are used for other types of covered care.

ACA and AMHCA devoted significant time and energy into pushing the parity legislation, and we will continue working alongside other mental health advocacy organizations on the development of regulations to implement the new law.  Our work would not have succeeded, however, without grassroots advocacy by counselors.  We sincerely thank our members who contacted their Senators and House members over the years to push for passage of this legislation. 

For more information on the new parity law, please contact either Scott Barstow, ACA Director of Public Policy and Legislation (800-347-6647 x234, e-mail: sbarstow@counseling.org) or Beth Powell, AMHCA Director of Public Policy and Professional Issues (800-326-2642, ext. 105, e-mail: bpowell@amhca.org).