Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 Extended

Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 Extended

Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 has been extended to 2003. Senator Domenici pledged to make passage of the "Paul Wellstone Memorial Parity for Mental Illness Bill" his top priority when Congress reconvenes early next year, stating that, "It will take a little time ... but we'll get it done ... within two or three months, early next year."

Action Alert
from the Mental Health Liaison Group

CONGRESS CLEARS PARITY EXTENDER (Parity Alert #17)

The House of Representatives and Senate on November 15 gave final approval to a bill simply extending the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 for one year, to December 31, 2003. (H.R. 5716)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:H.R.5716:

This ends our parity advocacy for the 2001-2002 Congress.

Unfortunately, we just ran out of time. The mid-term elections, the selection of new leadership, the backlog of legislation in Congress, and of course the tragic death of Senator Paul Wellstone who coauthored the parity bill, all had a dramatic impact on the legislative process.

While we fell short of our goal to pass the broad-based parity bill (the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, S. 543/H.R. 4066), we have never been closer to ensuring that individuals who suffer from mental health disorders get the same level of treatment as all other individuals. In fact, our collective advocacy efforts led to 67 Senators, 243 Representatives, 248 (http://www.mhlg.org/11-14-02.pdf) national organizations and the President supporting full mental health parity in the 107th Congress. Many dozens of editorials, op-eds and letters to the editor were also printed on the issue, followed by countless constituent letters to Members urging them to cosponsor the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act. This is an unprecedented level of support. Thank you so much for your persistent and effective advocacy on this issue.

We appreciate as well the leadership provided by the sponsors of the legislation, Senators Pete Domenici and Paul Wellstone and Representatives Marge Roukema and Patrick Kennedy. Their efforts have been superb in pushing within a legislative system that makes passing bills much more difficult than stopping bills.

We are still close to passing a full mental health parity bill into law. In fact, during Senator Wellstone's memorial service on November 13, Senator Domenici pledged to make passage of the "Paul Wellstone Memorial Parity for Mental Illness Bill" his top priority when Congress reconvenes early next year, stating that, "It will take a little time ... but we'll get it done ... within two or three months, early next year." Senator Domenici added that eight Senators asked him that day what they could do to help pass the parity bill.

But while we remain close, we cannot emphasize enough how critical your continued support and that of your grassroots members will be in the coming months. All parity advocates will have to restate the need to pass legislation to ban insurance discrimination against people with mental disorders, and we will face renewed resistance to our efforts. We will be back in touch as plans for moving parity in the new 108th Congress are formulated.

Last Updated on 04/14/04 webmaster@namiscc.org

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