Mental Health Parity - Essay Example

Mental health parity means that psychological and mental conditions must be treated equivalently as physical illnesses. As more and more people are suffering from various forms of mental illnesses nowadays, the quality of their lives, physical health, and performance is greatly being affected. As mental health is directly related to the performance of individuals at the workplace and other spheres of life, therefore mental health parity is a sure-shot way of enhancing the performance of individuals.

Traditionally, insurance companies had radically limited mental health benefits. “In the past, many insurance carriers used to discriminate against mental health services by having different benefits for mental health than for medical services.” (Solutions Medical Billing). A common practice had been to limit the insured to three or six therapist visits per year. Other insurance companies had assigned separate deductibles to mental health treatment. Some insurers simply refused to cover mental illnesses at all.

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was a major victory for Obama (who was a Senator at the time) and supporters everywhere of fair mental health coverage. The Act, which officially went into effect on January 1, 2010, requires group health plans that cover 50 or more employees and offers both medical and mental health benefits.

Under MHPA, group health plans, insurance companies, and HMOs offering mental health benefits are no longer allowed to set annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits that are lower than any such dollar limits for medical and surgical benefits.  A plan that does not impose an annual or lifetime dollar limit on medical and surgical benefits may not impose such a dollar limit on mental health benefits offered under the plan. (US Department of Labor) 

Personally, I don’t think there are any counter effects of creating mental health parity. By promoting health benefits for the employees, companies can gain the advantage of the efficiency of their workforce. In some cases, it might add to the overall costs of running a company by providing such benefits to the employees.

Depression, Alzheimer’s, anxiety disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders, and other personality and psychological disorders can not only disrupt a person’s ability to work but also negatively affect productivity at the workplace. The mental health parity Act ensures to extend of the coverage of health benefits to illnesses related to the mind, which shall improve the performance and behavior of individuals at the workplace. Moreover, sound mental health enables a person to maintain his physical health so as not to become a burden on the national economy.