Federal law requires equal coverage for mental illness

Part of the 2008 bail-out package was reform legislation that requires health insurers to treat mental illness on par with physical illness.    Most insurers have maintained higher go-pays, deductibles and stricter limits on mental health benefits, including limits on days of paid hospitalization, for example.  The insurers will now have to adjust their policy language.  Support for equal treatment has grown as researchers have found chemical and biological explanations and treatments for various mental health conditions.

This legislations is appropriate and long overdue.  On the other hand, it will exacerbate the already-deadly rise in health care costs and insurance coverage.