The MHPAEA is a successor to an older mental health parity law, the
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, increasing the funding for school-based mental health resources for children, and in 1996, Congress passed the
Mental Health Parity Act, the first of several legislative attempts to ensure parity between insurance coverage for medical and psychiatric illnesses--legislation that to this day has not achieved parity of access to care.
"One of the problems with the
mental health parity act is that it really hasn't been enforced," Douglas says.
Only two years after the defeat of the health care bill, President Bill Clinton signed, with Hillary's backing and advocacy, the
Mental Health Parity Act in 1996.
"This ruling gives us hope that the
Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 will now be enforced."
In 1996, as a result of these developments, and after several failed attempts at federal parity legislation, President Bill Clinton signed the
Mental Health Parity Act ("MHPA") into law.
The
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA) provided that large-group health plans cannot impose annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits that are less favorable than any such limits imposed on medical/ surgical benefits.
Then came 1996 and the
Mental Health Parity Act. The law, which expired in 2001, required insurers who offered mental health coverage to offer comparable annual and lifetime coverage caps.
The original parity legislation, the
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA), provided that large group health plans cannot impose annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits that are less favorable than any such limits imposed on medical/surgical benefits.
The new rules will provide the most definitive regulatory standard to date for implementing the
Mental Health Parity Act of 2008.
The law expanded the 1996
Mental Health Parity Act to include substance use treatment.