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National Institute Of Mental Health Article
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The Controversial Mental Health Parity Bill
from:The Mental Health Parity Bill is a bill that was first passed by Congress as the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and was created to help give people who needed mental health care but did not have enough money to pay for such care get the attention they needed for their mental health issues. The Mental Health Parity Bill was recently passed and approved by a lower house committee this year and has since then gathered a lot of flack from the people who may need to shell out the money to cover the expenses that this bill will incur.
The Mental Health Parity Bill basically states that insurance companies and employers need to provide equal health care benefits for both physical as well as mental illnesses. This means that aside from physical health care, people who have insurance policies or are employed by certain companies are entitled to mental health care when they need it and the cost for such mental health care should be covered by the insurance company or the employer of the person suffering from the mental health issues they are going through.
The Mental Health Parity Bill is rather controversial since there are really no set boundaries that indicate the true extent of mental issues that may affect the people who claim that they need medical attention for mental health problems. The recently approved Mental Health Parity Bill is also very controversial since the original Mental Health Parity Act had exempted coverage by insurance companies and employers if the expenses incurred by a patient if the mental health problems were proven to have been the result of substance abuse or drug usage. The Mental Health Parity Bill supports that a person is entitled to the same kind of care that they might get if they had cancer or heart disease for problems that involve alcoholism or drug addictions.
The Mental Health Parity Bill is not a welcome development for employers and insurance companies alike since they believe that a lot of people will take advantage of this bill and seek treatment for the smallest possible mental health illness they may think they have. Employers also argue that this kind of a bill will be an added burden to their situation and will only be an additional expense on their part. The probability of this bill creating huge dents in the medical bills and insurance policy payments of companies is pretty real. However, the reason behind the creation and approval of such a bill is noble and admirable despite the lack of concrete guidelines to help keep this bill from being abused.
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