Could mental health parity be in the offing?

   Lawmakers will try to move mental healthparity legislation by attaching it to a tax bill that will be addressedby the Senate this week, CongressDaily reports (Edney, CongressDaily, 9/17).  Lawmakers reached an agreementin July that would combine the House and Senate mental health paritybills by removing a House mandate on coverage of specific mental healthconditions in favor of one that would require that mental healthbenefits be equal to physical health benefits. No funding mechanism wasincluded in the agreement (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/10).  The parity bill currently is being considered by the Senate Finance Committee,which has been charged with finding funding offsets. The House passed asimilar bill this summer that would offset the cost by placingrestrictions on physician-owned hospitals.

According to aRepublican Senate staffer, funding possibilities discussed last weekinclude a one-year extension of a federal unemployment insurance taxpaid by employers, which would generate $1.5 billion; a one-year delayin implementing new rules governing the way companies allocate interestin calculating foreign tax deductions, which would raise $3 billion;and codification of the “so-called Economic Substance Doctrine” thatcould decrease business’ ability to get tax exemptions and generatebetween $4 billion and $15 billion, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 9/17). 

The tax bill (S 3001),which would extend dozens of expired provisions, expand incentives foralternative energy and eliminate the alternative minimum tax formillions of U.S. residents, could reach the Senate floor as early asWednesday night, according to CQ HealthBeat.Passage is “not a sure thing,” although with the “blessing of bothparties’ leaders” and committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and rankingmember Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), “action could be swift,” CQ HealthBeat reports (Rubin, CQ HealthBeat, 9/16).