The House passed a broad bill guaranteeing better mental health coverage for people with private insurance Wednesday, handing a victory to patient and medical groups that championed the bill.
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Many mental health patient groups and medical societies have long fought for the bill. Congress has tried and failed to pass similar legislation for more than a decade. Some groups, including the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, backed the Senate version, saying it was more likely to be signed into law.…
Many of those same groups remain skeptical that Wednesday’s bill can be reconciled with a significantly weaker version that passed the Senate late last year.
That bill allows insurers to choose which mental illnesses to cover. It also would negate potentially stronger state parity laws. Forty-two states have some form of parity on their books now.
Several conservative senators have already threatened to block the House and Senate from meeting to reconcile the two bills.
Anyone have the list of the senators who have threatened to block the meeting to reconcile? I’d say that the ones who don’t want to meet are probably the ones who need the most mental health help, but that would be too out of character for me.
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were co-sponsors of S. 558, but I’d like to know their positions on pushing for reconciliation. Given the focus on their dueling universal health care coverage plans during the last few months, mental health parity is a piece that must be considered by them as they continue to campaign.