EDITORIAL: NOW IS THE TIME FOR MENTAL HEALTH PARITY

The U.S. Congress needs to end Medicare’s discriminatory coverage of mental health services. The coinsurance rate for mental health services needs to be reduced from 50 percent to 20 percent, the share of costs that people with Medicare pay for doctor visits, wheelchairs, physical therapists and other treatments for diseases of the body.

The House of Representatives has already passed legislation to end this discrimination. The Senate has the opportunity to follow suit in a Medicare bill that must be passed by the end of June in order to avert a scheduled 10 percent cut for doctors.

If the Senate fails to make mental health parity a part of the midyear Medicare bill, there will not be another opportunity this year and this shameful discrimination will continue.

-Adapted from: “NOW IS THE TIME FOR MENTAL HEALTH PARITY”, Asclepios: Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update, Medicare Rights Center, May 15, 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 20.

 

05/08