Bailout Bill Includes Cheap Prozac and Therapy

By the time the gargantuan $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill was passed and signed last Friday, it contained a landmark piece of legislation that just might improve—surprise!—the quality of our lives. Dubbed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the law forces most insurance plans to offer the same coverage for mental problems as they do for physical ailments.

No longer can insurers discriminate against people with bipolar disorder, say, or alcoholism, by providing fewer benefits than they do for broken bones and breast cancer. Longstanding restrictions on mental health and substance-abuse treatment will be lifted, ranging from higher deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket expenses to the automatic cutoffs (typically at 30) for hospital days and therapy sessions.

While the bill may be a boost for the dying art of long-term psychotherapy, eager analysands should take note: The law is not a mandate and therefore leaves employers free to offer no mental health or substance-abuse benefits at all. And it doesn’t apply to businesses with fewer than 50 employees or to individual health plans. That leaves 31 million Americans out in the cold.