Congressman Sander Levin

Mental Health

According to the Surgeon General reports that two-thirds of Americans with diagnosable mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression are not receiving 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.

Under federal law, insurance companies are not allowed to impose different total annual and lifetime limits on mental healthcare. However, plans are still allowed to limit the number of visits or impose higher coinsurance or co-payments, preventing many Americans from getting needed mental health care.

This year, Congress took the important step toward establishing mental health parity in Medicare, our nation's health insurance for senior citizens and the disabled, by reducing the co-payment for mental health care over a six year period from 50% to 20%, the same amount as beneficiaries pay for most other care. This bill, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, was enacted into law on July 15, 2008.

However, there is still more work to be done in this arena. For that reason, I am a cosponsor of the Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act , which makes further improvements to Medicare mental health benefits.

In an effort to extend mental health parity to those with private insurance, I am also a cosponsor of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. This bill requires health plans to apply the same beneficiary contributions to mental health benefits as they apply to medical and surgical benefits, for deductibles, co-payments, and out-of-pocket expenses. It also revises the definition of mental health benefits to include substance-related disorder benefits. The House passed this important legislation on March 5, 2008 by a vote of 268-148. It is now awaiting action by the Senate.