To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to establish parity in the treatment of behavioral health and physical health conditions under disability benefit plans.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill creates congressional findings that discriminatory benefit limitations impede access to disability benefits for workers with behavioral health conditions, expressing sense that such limitations are discriminatory, adds new Part 9 to ERISA establishing definitions for disability benefit, disability benefit plan, mental health condition, and substance use disorder, and prohibits more restrictive limitations on mental, and requires core parity requirement prohibiting disability benefit plans from placing more restrictive limitations on mental health/substance use disorders than physical conditions, and requiring physical conditions caused. It relies on compliance mandates, definition changes, and appropriations. The main policy areas are Labor, Finance, Insurance, and Regulatory Implementation.
Who Benefits and How
Workers with mental health conditions could gain revenue opportunities, Department of Labor could gain revenue opportunities, and Workers with substance use disorders could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Disability insurance carriers would take on compliance duties, Insurance issuers violating parity requirements could face increased risk, and Insurance issuers offering disability coverage would take on compliance duties.
Key Provisions
- Creates congressional findings that discriminatory benefit limitations impede access to disability benefits for workers with behavioral health conditions, expressing sense that such limitations are discriminatory.
- Adds new Part 9 to ERISA establishing definitions for disability benefit, disability benefit plan, mental health condition, and substance use disorder, and prohibits more restrictive limitations on mental...
- Requires core parity requirement prohibiting disability benefit plans from placing more restrictive limitations on mental health/substance use disorders than physical conditions, and requiring physical conditions caused...
- Amends ERISA section 502(a)(6) to authorize Secretary of Labor to collect civil penalties for violations of the Act.
- Establishes definitions for Title II including administrator, employer, governmental employee benefit plan, issuer, Secretary, and State for purposes of extending parity requirements.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill creates congressional findings that discriminatory benefit limitations impede access to disability benefits for workers with behavioral health conditions, expressing sense that such limitations are discriminatory, adds new Part 9 to ERISA establishing definitions for disability benefit, disability benefit plan, mental health condition, and substance use disorder, and prohibits more restrictive limitations on mental, and requires core parity requirement prohibiting disability benefit plans from placing more restrictive limitations on mental health/substance use disorders than physical conditions, and requiring physical conditions caused.
Key Policy Areas
Labor, Finance, Insurance, Regulatory Implementation
Primary Purpose
The bill creates congressional findings that discriminatory benefit limitations impede access to disability benefits for workers with behavioral health conditions, expressing sense that such limitations are discriminatory, adds new Part 9 to ERISA establishing definitions for disability benefit, disability benefit plan, mental health condition, and substance use disorder, and prohibits more restrictive limitations on mental, and requires core parity requirement prohibiting disability benefit plans from placing more restrictive limitations on mental health/substance use disorders than physical conditions, and requiring physical conditions caused.
Policy Domains
Title I - ERISA Amendments
Identified Gains
- Workers with mental health conditions
- Department of Labor
- Workers with substance use disorders
- Government employees with mental health conditions
Identified Costs
- Disability insurance carriers
- Insurance issuers violating parity requirements
- Insurance issuers offering disability coverage
- Non-compliant plan sponsors and administrators
- Governmental employee benefit plan sponsors
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. DeSaulnier (for himself and Mr. Scott of Virginia) introduced …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Government employees with mental health conditions, Workers with mental health conditions, Workers with substance use disorders
Disability insurance carriers, Insurance issuers offering disability coverage, Insurance issuers violating parity requirements
Governmental employee benefit plan sponsors, State insurance regulators, States with existing mental health parity laws
Employers offering disability benefit plans, Non-compliant plan sponsors and administrators
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Labor
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Labor
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Labor
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A governmental plan as defined in ERISA section 3(32), excluding plans established by the federal government
Payment provided to a participant or beneficiary as a result of the loss of earning capacity resulting from injury or sickness
An employee welfare benefit plan that provides a disability benefit to participants or beneficiaries directly or through insurance or otherwise
Any condition (other than substance use disorder) that falls under diagnostic categories in WHO's ICD or APA's DSM for mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders
Any disorder listed as mental or behavioral disorder due to psychoactive substance use in WHO's ICD or as Substance-Related and Addictive Disorder in APA's DSM
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology