Brigette Courtot, Senior Health Policy Analyst

by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst, 

National Women's Law Center 

By Sofia Rosenblum, Intern,
and Brigette Courtot, Senior Policy Analyst,
National Women's Law Center

A new year always brings about change and transition, and one change worth noting this year is the implementation of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 (MHPA), which took effect on January 1st.

The MHPA establishes parity between physical and mental health benefits in job-based health plans. Historically, health plans have required higher cost-sharing and applied more restrictions to mental health benefits when compared to coverage for physical health care. But under the new law—which expands the scope of a less-protective federal mental health parity law passed in 1996—plans are prohibited from charging different levels of cost-sharing or imposing different treatment limits for mental health and physical health care.