FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    CONTACT:  CHRIS GALLEGOS
September 26, 1996                                 (202) 224-7082

DOMENICI'S MENTAL HEALTH PARITY SIGNED INTO LAW

WASHINGTON Senator Pete Domenici today announced that the President has signed a bill that includes his plan to begin providing health insurance for millions of Americans who suffer from mental illnesses in a manner that is on par with the coverage offered for other physical illnesses.

Domenici attended the White House ceremony at which the President signed the 1997 Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies (VA-HUD) Appropriations Bill. This bill includes the Domenici-authored mental health parity plan.

The signing marks the culmination of years of work by Domenici to begin the process of ending the structural discrimination against the mentally ill in terms of health insurance coverage.

"I believe this is truly historic. As a nation that prides itself on knowledge and science, the way we have defined, treated and discriminated against the mentally ill should not have endured. But it did. With this law, we recognize that when it comes to insurance policies in terms of lifetime and aggregate annual coverage, the illness and diseases of the brain will be on equal footing with all other forms of illnesses," Domenici said.

"For the millions of families of the mentally ill in America, this will not solve all their problems. There is still plenty of discrimination and stigma, but we can say that the Congress has agreed overwhelmingly to take one step in their direction, one step against the discrimination and one step against the stigma that is predicated on concepts from the Dark Ages. Now we, as a nation, will use our knowledge and our science to move in the right direction," he said.

Domenici and Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota pushed the parity plan through Congress this year. The new law now requires parity coverage for the mentally ill for aggregate lifetime and annual insurance payment limits. In general, most insurance policies include a $50,000 lifetime cap for treatments for mental illness while the cap for serious physical illnesses, like cancer or heart disease, might be $1 million or more.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost of this amendment would be minimal, with employers incurring less than a two-tenths of one percent increase in health premiums, or about 60- cents in additional costs per member per month. This cost represents a 90 percent reduction from the cost of the original Domenici-Wellstone amendment that passed the Senate in April as part of the Health Insurance Reform Act.

Under a compromise reached between Domenici and the conferees, the parity amendment would be implemented in 1998 until Sept. 30, 2001. In addition, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt. The small business exemption makes the parity provision consistent with the Health Insurance Reform Act that was signed into law in August.

The Senate linked the Domenici amendment to the VA-HUD Appropriations Bill, 82-15, on Sept. 5. The House passed a motion, 392-17, on Sept. 11 in support of the amendment.

Domenici, a long-time advocate for the mentally ill, also outlined what the next step might be in the quest to improve the treatment for those who suffer from mental illnesses.

"The next step, I believe, is to provide the National Institutes of Mental Health with time and resources to better define the biological and chemically-related diseases of the brain," Domenici said.

"It is now becoming obvious that the cloud between a physical illness, like a heart condition, and something like schizophrenia, may no longer be valid. We believe they are both physical illnesses. But we must get better definitions of that so we will have an even better picture of what this is all about. I believe these definitions will change the coverage and the reaction to mental illnesses more than anything the Congress can do on a mandatory nature," he said.

Domenici introduced legislation to change federal policies toward the mentally ill in May 1992, and kept offering such legislation in subsequent sessions of Congress. He has also worked to ensure funding for mental health research and other programs that to meet the needs of those who suffer from mental illnesses.