In 1996, the Federal Government passed strong legislation that prohibited insurance companies from imposing monetary limits on mental health benefits if these same limits did not exist for physical ailments. Insurance companies quickly skirted this rule by altering their contracts to impose visitation limits. Assemblyman Brennan and Senator Libous have introduced two bills to end the discrimination and enact mental health parity which works. Mental Illnesses are much more common than a number of physical ailments.
Mental illnesses are now extremely treatable.
A lack of mental health parity causes an unfair cost to taxpayers. People who possess treatable mental health disorders are often forced to go on welfare or SSI, using taxpayer dollars to make up for denied benefits. Mental Health Parity will allow mentally ill individuals to return to work sooner. By treating mental illnesses correctly, individuals will no longer be forced to receive inadequate care time and time again. Employers have not attempted to avoid parity laws by becoming self-insured, and they do not tend to pass on the cost of parity to employees.