February 29, 2008 - The EDC has been working throughout 2007 and early 2008 to enact full mental health parity. Now, victory is within reach. Following the Senate's passage of the Mental Health Parity Act (S. 558) by unanimous consent, the House is ready to take up its version of the bill, H.R. 1424, on Wednesday, March 5. After that, Senate and House leaders will reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill in order to pass the strongest possible parity legislation.

As a supporter of mental health parity, we urge you to contact
your U.S. Representative NOW to urge support for H.R. 1424.

Take 3 minutes. Call now!

Use the toll-free Parity Hotline, 1-866-parity4 (1-866-727-4894), to call your U.S. Representative.  (The Parity Hotline reaches the Capitol switchboard, which can connect callers to the members of Congress. Using this hotline, rather than calling House offices directly, helps us gauge our effectiveness.) If you are not sure of your Representative's name, you can find it by entering your zip code at www.house.gov.

Your message: "I am a constituent of Representative ______ and a supporter of the Eating Disorders Coalition. I am calling to ask that the Representative vote for H.R. 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health & Addiction Equity Act. Parity is a fair and affordable solution to insurance discrimination against people with eating disorders and other mental disorders. It will save lives and families."

Background: The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 expands the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 by prohibiting group health plans from imposing treatment or financial limitations on mental health benefits that are different from those applied to medical/surgical services. The legislation applies only to group health plans already providing mental health benefits and exempts plans sponsored by small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. For extensive information, link to the following EDC summary sheet on parity:
http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/legupdate/FactSheetsMPParity110.pdf