Mental Health Parity Act
1996 U.S. law / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Mental Health Parity Act?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) is legislation signed into United States law on September 26, 1996 that requires annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits to be no lower than any such dollar limits for medical and surgical benefits offered by a group health plan or health insurance issuer offering coverage in connection with a group health plan.[1] Prior to MHPA and similar legislation, insurers were not required to cover mental health care and so access to treatment was limited, underscoring the importance of the act.
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Other short titles |
|
---|---|
Long title | Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 |
Acronyms (colloquial) | MHPA |
Enacted by | the 104th United States Congress |
Citations | |
Public law | Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 104ā204 (text) (PDF) |
Legislative history | |
|
The MHPA was largely superseded by the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), which the 110th United States Congress passed as rider legislation on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in Public Law 110-343, signed into law by President George W. Bush in October 2008.[2] Notably, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extended the reach of MHPAEA provisions to many health insurance plans outside its previous scope.[3]