Toward full mental health parity and beyond

The 1996 Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA), wh ich became effective in Januar y 1998, is scheduled to expire in September 2001, This paper examines what the MHPA accomplished and steps toward more comprehensive parity. We explai n the strategic and self-reinforcing link of parity with managed behavioral health care and conclude that the current path will be difficult to revers e, The paper ends with a discussion of what might be behind the claims that full parity in mental health benefits is insufficient to achieve true equi ty and whether additional steps beyond full parity appear realistic or even desirable.