President Joe Biden announced a new landmark rule to strengthen mental and physical health parity requirements and improve mental health care access for more than 150 million Americans. The proposed rule would reinforce 2008’s Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) by requiring insurance providers to update health plans “to make sure people have equivalent access between their mental health and medical benefits,” according to an administration fact sheet.  

“President Biden said it best, ‘Mental health care is health care’,” said AAS President & Chief Executive Officer Leeann Sherman, MPS, CAE. “This new rule will allow people across the country to receive better mental health care that will hopefully reduce the number of deaths by suicide in the United States.”  

President Biden said the changes “represent a real step forward to help millions of people get the mental health care they need, and that insurance should be providing.” He also added, “You know, we can all agree, mental health care is health care. It is health care, it’s essential to people’s well-being and their ability to lead a full and productive life, to find joy, to find purpose, to take care of themselves and their loved ones. It’s about dignity.”