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Parity

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What is mental health parity?
 “Parity” refers to the effort to treat mental health financing on the same basis as financing for general health services. In recent years advocates have repeatedly tried to expand mental health coverage—in the face of cost-containment policies that have been widespread since the 1980s. Parity legislation is an effort to address at once both the adverse selection problem and the fairness problem associated with moral hazard. The fundamental motivation behind parity legislation is the desire to cover mental illness on the same basis as somatic illness, that is, to cover mental illness fairly. A parity mandate requires all insurers in a market to offer the same coverage, equivalent to the coverage for all other disorders.  ... evidence of the effects of parity laws shows that their costs are minimal.
From Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General

Status of Federal Parity
On October 3, 2008 the Paul Wellstone-Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.  Read a summary of the bill (geared towards practitioners).  Mental Health America also provides updates on mental health legislation issues at: Capitol Hill Update.

Status of Wisconsin Parity
On December 22, the Senate Committee on Health, Health Insurance, Privacy, Property Tax Relief, and Revenue approved an amended SB 362 by a 5-2 vote. In addition to the committee’s Democratic members, Republican Sen. Alberta Darling also voted yes, giving the legislation bi-partisan support. On December 17, the Assembly Committee on Health and Health Care Reform passed an amended AB 512 on a party-line vote of 8-5. The legislation will now advance for floor votes by the full Assembly and Senate. All committee members who voted in support of SB 362 or AB 512 are listed below. Please take a few minutes to contact your legislators who serve on these committees to thank them for their votes.

Passage of a Federal parity law can help Wisconsin’s own parity efforts. Wisconsin is one of only eight states that do not require parity of mental health coverage. Therefore we acutely feel the economic impact of higher medical costs and loss of productivity that accompanies untreated mental illnesses. Just consider depression: this disease affects 16% of all Americans; medical costs for people with depression average twice the cost of others; and, people with depression are seven times more like to be unemployed or underemployed.  Read more about it: http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1431625.html

Wisconsin specific resources:
General resources:
Opinion and Editorial pieces and Letters to the Editors