Consumers are often forced to fight for the health care they need and are entitled by law to receive. A recent analysis found that most insurance plan documents failed to provide the information consumers need to determine whether their coverage complies with the Parity Act.
Parity at 10 seeks to eliminate discriminatory insurance coverage for those with mental health and substance use disorders so that millions of people can get the care they need.
“We need to move from a system that relies on people in the middle of personal turmoil to identify wrongdoing … to one that is grounded in proactive enforcement of the law.”
PATRICK J. KENNEDY, FOUNDER OF THE KENNEDY FORUM
Parity at 10 will call on state regulators to ensure that plans are complying with the law before they are sold. The three-year campaign will establish effective models for robust enforcement.
The Parity Act requires equitable coverage of substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health (MH) benefits in both the public and private health insurance markets.
Plans covered by the federal Parity Law, which was passed in 2008, cannot apply more restrictive financial requirements or treatment limitations to MH and SUD benefits compared to other medical/surgical benefits covered by the plan.
The federal Parity Law applies to most insurers, including:
Full implementation of the Parity Law would end discriminatory insurance coverage for those with mental health and substance use disorders. But that will only happen with vigorous enforcement of the law.
For too many Americans, treatment is still inaccessible – even for those with insurance coverage. The Parity Law cannot achieve its promise without vigorous enforcement.
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Parity Act) was enacted a decade ago to prevent discriminatory insurance coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services. Today, too many people still cannot get the treatment they need because their insurer still uses discriminatory rules. Better enforcement of the Parity Act can help you and others get the services that insurers are required to cover. By sharing your experience with insurance problems, you can help us advocate for better enforcement of the Parity Act and improved access to treatment.
Here are some of the insurance problems you may have experienced: