Mental Health Insurance Parity Fact Sheet

General

Nine out of ten insurance policies treat mental health differently from physical health problems.
In 1996 the federal government passed the Mental Health Parity Act, otherwise known as the Dominici Wellstone Law, which goes into effect in January, 1998. This law provides partial parity regarding lifetime and annual limits, but there are significant loopholes; it does not provide true parity.
Fifteen states have passed parity legislation. These states include: Texas, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Vermont.
In 1997, 34 states considered parity legislation, nine states passed legislation while additional states passed legislation in one body and will seek passage in the other body in 1998.

Treatment for bipolar disorder has an 80-90% success rate, treatment of major depression 70-80% successful, and treatment of acute schizophrenia is 60% successful. Treatment of heart disease has just a 45-50% success rate and often requires expensive, dangerous surgery.
Treatment of mental illness is more affordable now than in the past. With new generations of medications continually being developed, there is increased precision in relieving symptoms and eliminating side effects associated with past treatments.
The annual cost of treating a person with severe diabetes has been found to be more expensive than treating a person with schizophrenia.
In Texas, the total cost of treating state employees and family members with brain disorders was one-fifth the cost of treating cardiovascular disease.
About 2.8% of all adult Americans, some 5 million people, suffer from a brain disorder. Approximately 40% of those people do not or can not seek treatment, in part, due to a lack of adequate insurance coverage.
It is estimated that 90% of insurance companies offer less benefits for treatment of mental illness than other physical conditions.