by FREDERIC J. FROMMER The Associated Press June 11, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) - Aided by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, insurance companies successfully have blocked legislation to make them provide equal coverage for mental and physical illnesses if their policies include both.

President Bush endorsed the concept two years ago. Today, supporters of the bill are willing to settle for a scaled-back version they hope Congress will pass in 2004.

The original legislation has 69 sponsors in the Senate and 246 sponsors in the House, clear majorities in both chambers. It was named for late Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who championed the issue for years.

Hastert, however, has declined to schedule a House vote. In the Senate, Republicans blocked an attempt to win passage last fall, on the one-year anniversary of Wellstone's death in a plane crash.

``The bottom line is there is still enormous resistance from employers and health plans, and they've been able to turn to allies in the Senate and especially the House,'' said Andrew Sperling, a lobbyist for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Companies such as BlueCross BlueShield Association, United Healthcare Corp. and WellPoint Health Networks have worked to defeat the legislation, in addition to the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, lobbying reports show.

Those groups combined to spend more than $13 million in lobbying last year on issues such as the mental health parity bill.

The bill would expand a 1996 law prohibiting health plans that offer mental health coverage from setting lower annual and lifetime spending limits for mental treatments than for physical ailments. The proposed legislation also would require equal treatment for co-payments, deductibles and limits on doctor visits.

Karen Ignagni, chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, said employers worried that would drive up health care costs and might cause some to drop mental health coverage altogether.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the legislation would increase health insurance costs slightly less than 1 percent, or roughly $23 billion a year.

Ignagni said her group also is concerned about covering every mental health illness, from caffeine addiction to adjustments to adulthood.

Sponsors of the legislation say they are willing to require only coverage for whatever mental illnesses are already covered by a specific health plan.

``The coverage has been scaled back significantly,'' said Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., one of the bill's leading supporters. He said Hastert, R-Ill., has been the main obstacle.

``I've spoken to him until I'm blue in the face,'' said Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic.

Hastert's office did not return phone messages, but the speaker has expressed concerns in the past that the bill would drive up premiums.

Paul Dennett, vice president for health policy at the American Benefits Council, which represents primarily Fortune 500 companies, said the scaled-back legislation would be an improvement but not enough to win his group's support. He said employers do not want any expansion of the 1996 law.

In an April 2002 speech to mental health professionals in New Mexico, Bush said the health insurance system must treat mental illness like any other ailments.

``Americans with mental illness deserve our understanding and they deserve excellent care,'' Bush said. ``They deserve a health care system that treats their illness with the same urgency as a physical illness.''

Bush added: ``Health plans should not be allowed to apply unfair treatment limitations or financial requirements on mental health benefits.''

Officials with the White House and the Health and Human Services Department did not return phone messages, nor did Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

During debate last year, Frist said he supported the legislation, but said it should pass out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee before coming to a floor vote.

The committee chairman, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., has told Frist he is fine with the bill going directly to the floor, said Gregg's spokeswoman, Gayle Osterberg. She said Gregg is considering an amendment that would expand mental health benefits without causing people to lose their coverage but declined to elaborate.

The Senate sponsor, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Gregg's amendment would require that cost increases not exceed 1 percent. Domenici said he was hopeful for a vote this month.

On the Net: Information on the bills, S. 486 and H.R. 953, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/