The bill applies to insurance policies regulated by the Ohio Insurance Commissioner. It changes the state law so that insurance policies cover mental health and addiction treatment benefits in the same manner as other medical conditions and illnesses. H.B. 33 does not mandate any specific benefit or set of benefits. PricewaterhouseCoopers has done an actuarial analysis of H.B. 33, the Ohio parity bill. The study made no assumptions about expanded managed care or medical cost offsets.
Actuarial studies are predictions.
At the same time, they instituted managed care. Policies that do not provide equitable coverage cannot realize savings of this magnitude in physical health costs. PricewaterhouseCoopers has conducted an Ohio-specific study analyzing the impact of H.B. 53 on the number of uninsured. 28 states now have some degree of parity in place. Congress passed The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 which eliminated annual dollar and lifetime benefit limits for mental health coverage.