Mental Health Parity Act

Mental Health Parity Act
Great Seal of the United States
Other short titles
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration Federal Employment Reduction Assistance Act of 1996
  • Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996
Long titleDepartments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997
Acronyms (colloquial)MHPA
Enacted bythe 104th United States Congress
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 104–204 (text) (PDF)
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 3666 by Jerry Lewis (R–CA) on 18 June 1996
  • Committee consideration by House Appropriations; Senate Appropriations
  • Passed the House on 26 June 1996 (269 - 147)
  • Passed the Senate on 5 September 1996 (95 - 2)
  • Reported by the joint conference committee on 20 September 1996; agreed to by the House on 24 September 1996 (388 - 25) and by the Senate on 25 September 1996 (Unanimous Consent)
  • Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on 26 September 1996

The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) is legislation signed into United States law on September 26, 1996 that requires annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits to be no lower than any such dollar limits for medical and surgical benefits offered by a group health plan or health insurance issuer offering coverage in connection with a group health plan.[1] Prior to MHPA and similar legislation, insurers were not required to cover mental health care and so access to treatment was limited, underscoring the importance of the act.

The MHPA was largely superseded by the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), which the 110th United States Congress passed as rider legislation on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in Public Law 110-343, signed into law by President George W. Bush in October 2008.[2] Notably, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extended the reach of MHPAEA provisions to many health insurance plans outside its previous scope.[3]

  1. ^ "Fact Sheet: The Mental Health Parity Act". Employee Benefits Security Administration. U.S. Department of Labor. October 2008. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference thomasMHPAEA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Frank, Richard G.; Beronio, Kirsten; Glied, Sherry A. (2014). "Behavioral health parity and the Affordable Care Act". Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation. 13 (1–2): 31–43. doi:10.1080/1536710X.2013.870512. PMC 4334111. PMID 24483783.