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Volume 12 Number 175 News: Mental Health House mental health parity legislation (H.R. 1424) would increase premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance by 0.4 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. CBO in a Sept. 7 analysis said the bill would reduce federal tax revenues by $1.1 billion from 2008 through 2012 and by $3.1 billion from 2008 to 2017. The direct costs to the private sector from the bill would total $1.3 billion in 2008 and would grow in subsequent years, CBO said. H.R. 1424, the proposed Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Public Health Service Act to prohibit employer group health plans from adopting mental health treatment limitations, financial requirements, or out-of-network coverage limitations unless comparable limitations and requirements were adopted for medical and surgical benefits. The bill was approved by the House Education and Labor Committee July 18, and is awaiting markups by the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees. The Senate version of the bill (S. 558) is awaiting floor action. CBO in a March 20 analysis said the Senate bill also would increase employer premiums by 0.4 percent. The increased costs associated with the House legislation could be handled by employers in several ways, CBO said. Some employers could drop health insurance coverage or make changes in the plans they offer, such as increasing copayments and deductibles, the analysis said. Employers also could pass on the costs to workers by reducing their taxable compensation or other fringe benefits, it added. "For employees of private firms, CBO assumes that all of [the] increase would ultimately be passed through to workers," the analysis said. The CBO analysis of H.R. 1424 is available at
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