I wonder if ex-COS issues helped Joe come around on mental health parity

Maybe Joe changed his mind on providing mental health parity after his own ex-chief of staff lost it in a Rochester drugstore.


H.R. 1424

Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008

Introduced:
03.09.2007 [House]

Sponsor:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy [D-RI]

House: Yea-268, Nay-148

Awaiting reconciliation with the Senate version of the bill.

The Legislation:

The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act mandates that group health plans provide mental health and substance-related disorder benefits that are at least equivalent to benefits offered for medical and surgical procedures. The legislation renews and expands provisions of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. While that bill requires only financial equity for annual and lifetime mental health benefits, this legislation also compels parity in treatment limits and expands all equity provisions to addiction services. Thus, the bill not only requires that the deductibles, co-payments, and out-of-pocket expenses applied to mental health and addiction services be no more