Introduction
More than one in three individuals experience some form of mental illness at least once in their life. Psychological well-being is necessary to lead a successful, productive, and a balanced life. Quality of life of an individual depends greatly on the mental health and presence of mental disorders debilitate not only the individual but the society as a whole. Anxiety, depression, eating disorders are the most common mental illnesses and those suffering from these should be provided help and support to cope. Mental illnesses also affect the physical health of individuals and can lead to substance abuse, systemic diseases, and suicide attempts. Even when individuals seek help for a mental illness, the treatment and services are often for lifetime and very costly. Adding to this is the reluctance of the insurance companies to pay along with their extremely limited coverage for mental health services which is at a much higher cost than it should be. The benefits guidelines are rigid and most people are not even allowed to utilize the insurance services. Those who are denied treatment cost end up with a worsening medical condition. For this reason, the Mental health Parity act was signed on September 26, 1996.
History
Mental health was first defined by William Sweetzer as mental hygiene in the mid-19th century. Isaac Ray said that mental hygiene is the art of keeping the mind safe from unhealthy and negative influences. Anything that inhibits the healthy development and and destroys the energy of the mind can bring about mental illness. Many laws, movements, and acts have been signed to improve mental health. The Mental Health Parity Act is one these and it was signed into the law of the United States of America in order to achieve equal provision of mental health care to all those who need it.
Features
The Mental Health Parity Act requires that parity of mental health benefits with those of medical and surgical health. This is with respect to the application of total lifetime and yearly dollar limits under a group health plan. It also maintains that the employers have the power and right to decide the extent of coverage of mental health services provided to the employees and their families. This also includes the numbers of visits and days that are covered along with the cost limit. The mental health parity law does not however apply to substance abuse and chemical dependency benefits.
Tips and comments
However, there are two exemptions of the Mental Health Parity Act. These are small employers and increased cost. Mental health parity is not applied to the health plan or coverage of employers who have employed only two to fifty workers on every official working day during the former calender, and also those who hire at least two employees on the very first day of the plan year. The Mental Health Parity also doesn't apply to health plan and insurance coverages if the parity provision application turns out to have an increased cost in contrast to that included in the plan by at least one percent. The MHPA has now been largely replaced by the Troubled Asset Relief Program which was made effective in October 2008.
