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Congressman Paul Tonko highlighted recent figures released this week that show the Affordable Care Act expands mental health and federal parity protections for approximately 60 million Americans, including more than 1.5 million New Yorkers. This growth in coverage represents one of the largest expansions of mental health coverage in decades.

“This is a big win for a group that has been largely forgotten about for generations,” said Tonko, who fought for one of the nation’s strongest mental health parity laws during his tenure in the New York State Assembly. “The Affordable Care Act is working to eliminate hard, dollars-and-cents decisions between a low medical bill and a healthy individual. As these advances are made in mental health parity for all age spectrums, it is important to note that there is much more to be done. As millions more gain coverage, we need to strengthen the delivery system. This means making mental health and substance abuse screenings a standard part of a primary care visit, so that patients know their treatment options. This will go a long way in removing the stigma of mental health and provide the help that millions of Americans have needed for years.”

The Affordable Care Act builds on the advances made by the Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). While the MHPAEA was a major step forward, the law did not require plans to offer mental-health and substance-abuse coverage and it only applied the parity rules to insurance plans offered by large employers. The Affordable Care Act fills these gaps by requiring all plans offered in exchanges to offer substance-abuse and mental-health coverage.

Because of the health care law, for the first time insurance companies in the individual and small group market are required to cover mental health and substance use disorder services as one of ten categories of essential health benefits. Additionally, insurance companies must cover these services at parity with medical and surgical benefits, which means things like out-of-pocket costs for behavioral health services must generally be comparable to coverage for medical and surgical care.

An estimated one in five adults experiences a mental illness in any given year. While most mental illnesses are treatable, those with mental illness too often cannot access needed treatment if they do not have health insurance that covers mental health services. The Affordable Care Act requires most health plans to cover recommended preventive services like depression screenings for adults and behavioral assessments for children at no cost to consumers. And, because of the law, starting in 2014 insurers will not be able to deny coverage or charge individuals more due to due to pre-existing conditions, including mental illnesses

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