Fighting for Parity

"Fighting for Parity in an Age of Incremental Health Care Reform: A Battle Against Discrimination in the Health Care Industry" by Ken Libertoff, Ph.D.

In 1997 the Vermont Legislature passed and Governor Howard Dean, M.D., signed what was then — and at this writing, still is — the most comprehensive behavioral health care parity legislation in the United States. Comprehensive parity simply means that health insurance companies must provide the same degrees and types of coverage for mental illness and substance-abuse treatment that they provide for physical conditions.

In most other states, and in Vermont before the law was passed, mental illness and addictions have received far less than parity coverage. Many plans limit consumers, including children, to a total of $10,000 in "behavioral" health benefits for their entire lives. Even though millions of people and their families must struggle with mental illness and/or severe addiction, the lack of parity means that insurers and managed care organizations withhold from these customers the essence of health insurance: security that serious conditions will be covered.

This report chronicles the successful effort to change this inequity in Vermont, where an unprecedented Parity Coalition shepherded a comprehensive parity bill through the State Legislature during the 1997 session. The report was written by Ken Libertoff, Executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health (VAMH), which created and led the Parity Coalition.

This report summarizes the coalition’s strategy and the lessons it learned during the legislative campaign, and during the first year of the parity law’s implementation. This account, which also includes many details and sidelights of the campaign, is offered especially for the benefit of groups and coalitions in other states that seek to achieve parity legislation as an essential step toward full health care reform.

Copies of this book are still available for $12.00 each or 3 or more for $10.00 each.

To order copies of Fighting for Parity in an Age of Incremental Health Care Reform, please mail a check made payable to VAMH, along with your name, address, and telephone number, to:

Vermont Association for Mental Health P.O. Box 165 Montpelier, VT 05601

Thank You!