Bill Cleared to Extend Protections For Mental Health Insurance.

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Author: Allen, Jonathan

Noteworthy

The House has cleared for President Bush's signature legislation that would extend some mental health insurance protections through next year.

The bill (S 1929) won final passage Dec. 8 on a voice vote. The Senate had passed the bill by voice vote Nov. 21.

Sponsored by Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the measure would reauthorize a law requiring employer-provided insurance plans to impose the same lifetime limits on mental health benefits that they apply to medical and surgical benefits.

Health plans with no lifetime limits on medical benefits may not impose limits for mental care benefits.

The law, which was set to expire at the end of this year, does not require insurance companies to provide mental health coverage.

A bill to provide full parity between mental and medical health insurance (S 486) without requiring that coverage be provided has 67 cosponsors but failed to advance during the first session of the 108th Congress.

Republicans leaders and the insurance industry oppose that measure, saying it would drive up costs. Its backers want to pass it as a tribute to one of its staunchest supporters, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. (1991-2002).

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By Jonathan Allen