As psychiatrists and other mental health professionals know very well, mental health and addiction treatment parity is long overdue in this country.
The 1996 Mental Health Parity Act--sponsored by my father, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-Ariz.)--broke new ground by prohibiting unequal annual and lifetime limits for mental illness and addiction, compared with coverage for other medical and surgical illnesses. But insurers violated the spirit of the law by setting new visit limits, higher copayment and deductible fees, and other requirements for mental health and addiction treatment. Because of those shortcomings, mental health champions, ...