Employers not dropping coverage as Mental Health Parity law is enacted

American Medical News: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act hasn't made employers drop coverage as some feared it might. The full effects won't be felt until early 2011 as health plans begin their new enrollment years, but "[e]arly indications ... are that relatively few employers are dropping mental health coverage in response to the law's mandate, a concern of some of the bill's opponents."

"Large companies — those with 200 or more workers — were less likely than smaller companies to have dropped coverage in 2010: Only 2 percent did so, compared with 7 percent of small employers, according to the 2010 Employer Health Benefits Survey that the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust released in September. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.) Also, 75 percent of large firms eliminated mental health coverage limits, while 61 percent of smaller employers did so. The law requires companies that offer mental health benefits to restrict them no further than they do physical health coverage" (Trapp, 10/19).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.