Congressman Sander Levin

Mental Health

According to the Surgeon General, only one-third of Americans with diagnosable mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression are receiving appropriate treatment. This statistic tells me that we have a lot of work to do in the area of mental health care. Many adults and children are unable to seek treatment because their private or public insurance does not cover mental health services or imposes additional costs or limits on care. Still others are among the 45 million people with no health insurance at all. I believe that all Americans should have access to mental healthcare when they need it, and I have made removing barriers to mental health treatment a top priority.

After years of effort, Congress has recently taken critical steps to expand coverage for mental health care. First, Congress passed mental health parity legislation to end discrimination against patients seeking treatment for mental illnesses. The Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act prohibits group insurance plans that offer mental health coverage from setting caps on mental health benefits that are different from caps on other medical benefits, and from requiring higher co-payments for mental health benefits than other benefits. President Bush signed this bill into law on October 3, 2008.

Congress has also taken important steps to establish mental health parity in our public insurance plans. In January, Congress passed legislation to continue and expand Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) legislation. This law will cover about 4 million of the 8 million children without health insurance nationwide, including 71,000 children in Michigan.

The legislation also established mental health parity in CHIP plans. This means that the financial requirements and treatment limits applicable to mental health or substance use disorder benefits cannot be more restrictive than the financial requirements and treatment limitations for other medical benefits. In addition, there can be no separate cost-sharing requirements or treatment limitations applicable only to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.

In addition, Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act in July of last year. This bill reduces the co-payment for mental health benefits from 50% to the 20% level required for other services over the course of 6 years.

Going forward, I believe we must update our health care system to ensure that all Americans have comprehensive and affordable health coverage that includes mental health benefitsI am currently working with my colleagues and the Obama administration to pass health care reform that will ensure at long last that all Americans have quality health care, including mental health care.

(Updated October 19, 2009)