Mental Health Coverage Still Not Equal Despite Parity Law

Seven years after lawmakers enacted the mental health parity law, data show insurers are skirting the law in numerous ways and the government is not adequately enforcing it. For example, a 2014 National Alliance on Mental Illness survey found payment was denied for mental health treatment twice as often as treatment for other conditions because mental health treatments were deemed not medically necessary. Meanwhile, a 2015 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study found two state health exchanges where one-quarter of the plans violated federal parity laws in multiple ways, including by requiring higher cost-sharing for mental health coverage.

• "Advocates Say Mental Health 'Parity' Law Is Not Fulfilling Its Promise" (Gold, Kaiser Health News, 8/3).