House Panel Passes Mental Health Parity Bill
Under the bill, group health care plans would have to provide the same coverage for mental health care disorders as they do for other medical conditions.
October 12, 2007
House Panel Passes Mental Health Parity Bill
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee this week approved mental
health care benefits parity legislation on a voice vote, sending the bill to the
full committee and moving the measure closer to a vote by the House of
Representatives.
The legislation approved by the panel on October 10, H.R. 1424, mirrors
bills cleared earlier by the House committees on Education and Labor as well as
Ways and Means.
Under the bill, group health care plans would have to provide
the same coverage for mental health care disorders as they do for other medical
conditions.
Additionally, group health care plans would have to cover all
mental health care services that are listed in the most recent edition of a
diagnostic treatment manual published by the American Psychiatric Assn.
The
panel approved the bill after defeating on a 19-9 vote a substitute bill
proposed by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., to insert in its place a mental health
care benefits parity measure the Senate cleared last month.
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