Know Your Rights: The Mental Health Parity Act

It happens too often: families looking for help for a child in a mental health or addiction crisis are turned away from an emergency room or provider’s office. Some are told it’s an insurance problem. Others are told there are no programs available.

It’s critically important for parents and healthcare consumers to know that they have rights when trying to access care. The 2008 Federal Parity Law requires insurers to cover illnesses of the brain, such as depression or addiction, no more restrictively than illnesses of the body, like diabetes or cancer.

As rates of suicide and overdoses continue to climb nationwide, mental health parity is more important than ever. Unfortunately, any insurers are still not following the law.

If yours is one of them, remember: equal access to mental health and addiction treatment services is your right.

Visit dontdenyme.org to access valuable resources to aid in your fight for mental health parity. Created and funded by The Kennedy Forum, dontdenyme.org has easy-to-follow explanations of your rights, step-by-step directions to file appeals, and more.