The measure excludes businesses with 50 or fewer employees, and allows all employers to be exempted from the law if their costs rise more than one percent as a result of complying with the requirements. One in every four families is affected by mental illness. Treatment is cost-effective. Mental disorders are medical illnesses. Mental illness, heart disease, cancer and diabetes are all medical illnesses.
Reform is hampered by stigma.
The lack of adequate insurance coverage for mental illness may have less to do with economics and actuarial data and more to do with the stigma associated with this illness. The main beneficiaries of parity will be families with children. Seven out of ten of those employers agree that mental health parity is a reasonable national policy goal and that parity is important to their employees. Lowered costs and lower premiums were reported within the first year of parity.