America Honors Recovery Awards
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The Recovery Bill of Rights
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Campaigns: Addiction Recovery Insurance Equity
Victory! on the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
On October 3, President Bush signed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 into law as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (HR 1424). The law will begin to end the insurance discrimination facing people with addiction and mental illness.
The victory came after years of advocacy that picked up its pace over the last two years under the leadership of Representatives Jim Ramstad (R-MN) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) in the US House of Representatives. They were joined by the House and Senate leadership and Senators including Pete Domenici (R-NM), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) in providing the Congressional leadership that led to final passage.
Recovery advocates across the country were joined by David Wellstone, son of the late Senator Paul Wellstone in countless Call-in Days, email campaigns, visits with members of Congress at home and in Washington, DC and media outreach to tell the story of insurance discrimination. This victory would not have been possible without your tireless advocacy and the efforts of allied organizations across the country.
What does this victory mean?
When the law goes into effect on October 3, 2009, group health plans that offer coverage for addiction and mental illness will be required to provide benefits in the same way as they offer them for all other medical and surgical coverage. That means that they will no longer be able to impose different limits on inpatient days or outpatient visits or require higher deductibles or cost sharing when people are seeking treatment for addiction or mental illness than for other covered medical and surgical procedures.
The victory also means that the voices of the organized recovery community and our allies were heard more than ever before in our nation’s capitol. Today, more people in Washington, DC and across the country know about the reality of recovery from addiction and that there is an organized constituency that is advocating on behalf of recovery.
What will the law do?
The law applies to all group health plans with 51 or more employees. It will cover 82 million individuals in self-insured employer health plans that are not governed by state parity laws and another 31 million in plans that are subject to state regulation.
- State Laws: It protects and preserves State laws that provide greater protection than the federal law
- Out-of-network coverage: It extends out-of-network coverage for substance use disorders and mental illness where there is out-of-network coverage for medical and surgical conditions
- Medical necessity criteria: It requires that medical necessity criteria and reasons for any denials of reimbursement be available to participants and beneficiaries upon request
Faces & Voices will be providing more information about the law in the coming months. If you’d like to read the law, click here.