President Bush signed into law the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which will improve access to lifesaving addiction and mental health treatment by eliminating the discriminatory barriers that have kept thousands of Americans with substance use and mental health disorders from receiving the care they need. The measure was included in the economic recovery bill, which was approved yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The same package was approved by the U.S. Senate on October 1.

Under the bill, health insurance plans sponsored by businesses with more than 50 employees will be prohibited from imposing day and visit limits or applying different deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-network charges. The legislation would protect state laws that provide greater protection than the federal law, extend out-of-network coverage for substance use disorders and mental illness where there is out-of-network coverage for medical and surgical conditions, and require that medical necessity criteria and reasons for any denials of reimbursement be available to participants and beneficiaries upon request. The lead sponsors of the bill in the House were Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN). In the Senate, the bill was championed by Senators Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Kennedy (D-MA).