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For Immediate Release:
February 6, 2008

Contact: Jodi Seth or Brin Frazier 202-225-5735

Washington, D.C. – Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, today joined his colleagues in approving a one year extension of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. Chairman Dingell submitted the following statement for the Congressional Record in support of H.R. 4848, which was passed by the House under a suspension of the rules:

Today we are voting to extend for one year, through 2008, the 1996 Mental Health Parity Act. This law bars the use of arbitrary annual and lifetime caps on mental health services if they aren’t also used on other medical benefits. We need to extend this first good step that Congress took over a decade ago, but more work is required to reach true parity in the treatment of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders.

When Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, we passed only partial parity for mental illness and excluded addiction benefits from the equitable treatment other mental health services received under the bill. Left untouched were other important and potentially costly parts of an insurance policy such as limits on inpatient days and outpatient visits and other out of pocket expenses like copays, coinsurance and deductibles. These limits result in millions of Americans being denied needed treatment and/or incurring huge out of pocket costs.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a May 2000 report that 87% of employers complying with the Act merely substituted other restrictive limits on things already mentioned for the annual and lifetime limits prohibited under the 1996 Act.

Today we must pass the extension of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and continue to work to built on this law to reach true parity by passing the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, H.R. 1424. The legislation has been favorably reported out of all three committees of jurisdiction in the House.

Mental illness and alcohol and drug addiction are painful and private struggles with staggering public costs, not to mention the toll these conditions take on families and communities. Representatives Kennedy and Ramstad have been faithful champions of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and speak courageously of their own triumphs over their mental illness and substance abuse.

We must vote to reauthorize the protections we already have in place and continue to work for more comprehensive parity.