The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was passed in 2008 to ensure adequate coverage of behavioral health services for people with private insurance. A 2024 federal rule strengthened the standards for demonstrating coverage of behavioral health services are at least on par with coverage of other medical care, bolstering federal protections regarding covered benefits and provider networks. However, following a legal challenge from a group of employers,, the Trump administration has not indicated if it will defend the rule or rewrite it, but it has announced it will not enforce its key requirements and has encouraged states to halt enforcement.
Despite this federal step backward, some states are continuing or even expanding their own parity enforcement efforts, some are explicitly embracing the federal rule in state law, and others have paused work and face uncertainty about future federal guidance. In a recent article for the Commonwealth Fund, JoAnn Volk and Madison Harden-Stein explore how this federal retreat affects parity implementation and the varying responses from states working to maintain or strengthen behavioral health coverage protections.
You can read the full article here.
