Mental Health Parity Would Not Increase Health Care Costs

Employers offering health benefits to their employees have long been reluctant to include coverage of mental health services to equal coverage of their other medical benefits in their employee benefits package. They fear mental health parity would drive up health care costs. However, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that this is not the case.

The study focused on the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, the health plan available to federal government employees and their dependents. FEHBP has offered mental health coverage equivalent to coverage of other medical services since 2001, but costs and utilization of services did not significantly increase once the mental health benefits were available.