Can Health Plans Drop Mental Health and Substance Use Benefits Completely In Order to Avoid the New Law?
The Act does not require a health plan to provide mental health and substance use benefits. But if the plan does provide such coverage, it must be at parity with physical health coverage. Health plans are not going to drop this coverae to evade the new parity law. The 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation Annual Survey of Benefits showed that 97 percent of plans alreadyprovide mentalhealth and substance use benefits. It is now well accepted that mental health and substance use tretments are an integral part of treating most medical conditions. Effective tretment of most illnesses like diabetes, asthma, and congestive heart conditions requires a full recognition and treatment of co-morbid mental health and substance use disorders. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the Parity Act will raise health lan premiums by an average of about 0.4 percent, to be split between employers and their employees. Due to this very low cost, health plans will continue to provide mental health
