Disparities in Access to Mental Health Care Persist Despite Federal Legislation

MoodSurfing celebrated the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008, when it was first passed.  We again celebrated in 2013 when the Obama administration issued guidelines for the implementation of the legislation, including parity in payments made to mental and physical health practitioners; parity in limitations in coverage (for example the number of days …

Parity is What We Want

An overwhelming majority of Americans want parity. A large study found that almost 90% of Americans reported that mental health and non-mental health care were equally important to them in terms of their overall well-being. At the same time nearly a third of those Americans surveyed felt that mental health care was inaccessible and 40% felt that it was something that …

Parity Website

We ran across information about a new website that is drawing attention to the issue of mental health parity and that is dedicated to helping people get the behavioral health treatment they need – Paritytrack.org. The essence of the federal law that requires mental health parity in insurance coverage is not that mental health needs to have a certain level of …