Policy Explainer: Mental health parity
The primary focus of mental health parity is to ensure that insurance plans do not make access to mental health and substance use disorder (collectively known as behavioral health) treatment more cost-prohibitive or restrictive than access to medical or surgical care. There is strong evidence that mental health benefits legislation, which includes parity requirements, increases access to mental health services and reduces patient costs. Evidence on cost impacts to insurers is mixed. Most research has found that parity requirements do not significantly increase annual costs per health plan member overall, although several studies have found modest increases.
This policy explainer outlines federal and state mental health parity laws from 1990 to 2025.
Additional resources
- Parity Track monitors parity implementation work happening across the U.S.
- Enforcing Mental Health Parity: State Options to Improve Access to Care, a 2024 issue brief by The Commonwealth Fund
- State parity gold standards, a series of briefs on important parity concepts for states to consider, developed by the Kennedy Forum and Legal Action Center
HPIO’s child and youth mental health policy brief series
This policy explainer was released in conjunction with a series of four HPIO publications on child and youth mental health. Those briefs addressed:
