Mental Health Bill to Face House Vote

Mohit M. Ghose, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, said that the trade group hopes to tackle the country's challenge of providing coverage to the uninsured in the next Congress.

"To accomplish this goal, we believe that consumers and employers must have the ability to choose the type of health care coverage they can afford and that most suits their needs," he said. "We hope that any discussion of mental health and other health care legislation will occur in this context next year."

J.P. Fielder, a spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers, said his group doesn't support "additional mandates to health care coverage that will drive up these costs to employers." He declined to say whether he considered this bill to be a mandate, saying the group was still reviewing issues that will come up in the next Congress.

Andrew Sperling, a lobbyist for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said the bill was not a mandate because it doesn't require insurance plans to provide mental health coverage.

"We don't want to get in the trap of making this a mandate," he said. "We believe this is a coverage condition."

He added: "We believe the brain is an organ like any other, and coverage should be equitable. Treatment is effective."

David L. Shern, president and CEO of Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association), said cost should not be a concern. He pointed to a study this year in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that the government's decision to provide parity to federal employees in their health insurance plans did not drive up the cost of mental health care.

"I'm hoping we have nailed all of the concerns," Shern said. "It's the right thing to do, we have the data that says it's affordable, so our hope is this will be the year to set this benchmark nationally."