[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[S. 77 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 77
To amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to provide for equal
coverage of mental health services under the State Children's Health
Insurance Program.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 6, 2009
Mr. Kerry (for himself and Ms. Snowe) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to provide for equal
coverage of mental health services under the State Children's Health
Insurance Program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Children's Mental Health Parity
Act''.
SEC. 2. PARITY FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN SCHIP.
(a) Assurance of Parity.--Section 2103(c) of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 1397cc(c)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (4), the following:
``(5) Mental health services parity.--
``(A) In general.--In the case of a State child
health plan that provides both medical and surgical
benefits and mental health or substance abuse benefits,
such plan shall ensure that the financial requirements
and treatment limitations applicable to such mental
health or substance abuse benefits are no more
restrictive than the financial requirements and
treatment limitations applied to substantially all
medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan.
``(B) Deemed compliance.--To the extent that a
State child health plan includes coverage with respect
to an individual described in section 1905(a)(4)(B) and
covered under the State plan under section
1902(a)(10)(A) of the services described in section
1905(a)(4)(B) (relating to early and periodic
screening, diagnostic, and treatment services defined
in section 1905(r)) and provided in accordance with
section 1902(a)(43), such plan shall be deemed to
satisfy the requirements of subparagraph (A).''.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--Section 2103 of such Act (42 U.S.C.
1397cc) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding paragraph
(1), by striking ``subsection (c)(5)'' and inserting
``paragraphs (5) and (6) of subsection (c)''; and
(2) in subsection (c)(2), by striking subparagraph (B) and
redesignating subparagraphs (C) and (D) as subparagraphs (B)
and (C), respectively.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section take
effect on October 1, 2009.
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