CQ’s Carey Discusses Passage of Mental Health Parity Legislation, Veterans’ Bills, Other Extensions of Health Programs

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses passage of mental health parity legislation as part of the financial bailout of Wall Street firms, President Bush's approval of a stopgap resolution to keep the government operating and a wide-ranging package of veterans' health bills in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

Carey says the mental health parity bill -- which was passed as part of the bailout package on Friday -- requires that insurers that cover mental illnesses provide benefits, copayments and treatment limits equal to those for physical ailments. The bill was included in the financial bailout bill to create "additional pressure to move the entire package," according to Carey. She adds that parity has "widespread bipartisan support in both chambers, as well as within the mental health community and among business groups, so those alliances also worked to overcome opposition to the financial bailout package."

Carey also says that the continuing resolution signed by Bush last week will fund government agencies, including HHS and the Department of Veterans Affairs, through March 6, 2009. A second economic stimulus package, valued at $60.8 billion, was approved by the House but voted down in the Senate, Carey says. She adds that the bill would have increased matching funds for state Medicaid programs by $19.6 billion over 15 months. Democrats had said the additional federal Medicaid funding would prevent cuts to health insurance and health services for low-income children and families. Bush said he would veto the stimulus measure.

Several bills related to veterans' health care also were approved, Carey says. One bill authorizes $1.9 billion for VA medical facility projects and major medical facility leases nationwide, while an additional $30 million was approved for VA to designate between four and six health care facilities as locations for epilepsy and to choose a VA official as the national coordinator for its epilepsy programs. In addition, $8 million in funding was approved through fiscal year 2012 for VA to extend research into post-traumatic stress disorder through the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and another $3 million was approved for a two-year VA pilot program to test the "feasibility and advisability" of providing assessment, education and treatment of substance use via the Internet, Carey says.

Congress also approved legislation that would increase funding for community health centers providing preventive and primary care to low-income and uninsured U.S. residents. The legislation would provide $13.1 billion for the centers through FY 2012. Other bills passed along to Bush would allow CDC to create a registry of people with the condition known as Lou Gehrig's disease, reauthorize federal money for community poison control centers, reauthorize a grant program for mental health treatment of prison inmates and authorize the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to make grants for the development and operation of research centers examining environmental factors that might influence breast cancer, according to Carey. She also says another bill passed last week that would allocate $45 million in additional funds for Medicare premium assistance for low-income seniors (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 10/3).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.