ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
Taking another major step to expand the government's role in regulating health insurance, Congress agreed Tuesday to legislation requiring employers to increase insurance coverage of mental illness and guarantee 48-hour hospital stays for new mothers and their infants.
The strong appeal of health issues in an election year produced easy passage of a measure to give the increased protection for Americans who already have health insurance at work.
Action by the Republican-controlled Congress constituted a major change in federal policy and congressional attitude, coming two years after a Democratic-controlled Congress ignored President Clinton's call for universal and mandatory health coverage by business.
Instead, the newly successful approach to health-care reform is incremental, providing improvements for the majority of Americans who have coverage through their jobs without dealing with the problems of the 41 million persons who are uninsured.
The benefits, included in an appropriations bill for the Veterans Administration and Department of Housing and Urban Development, were approved by a vote of 388-25 in the House. The Senate signed off on the measure Tuesday
The bill will now be sent to the White House, where Clinton has indicated he will sign the measure.
The guarantees follow the passage last month of legislation Clinton signed into law that makes it easier for workers to get health coverage when they change jobs, and for small companies to arrange health insurance.
The mental health provision creates parity for spending on physical ailments and mental illnesses. Currently, many health plans have separate lifetime spending limits, such as $1 million for physical conditions, and $50,000 for mental illness coverage. Plans also may have annual limits applied to mental health coverage. These financial differentials will become illegal in 1998.
The legislation would apply new rules to all health-insurance plans. The maternity provision is a response to widespread complaints from women who felt they were sent home too quickly after giving birth.
The measure, slated to take effect Jan.1, 1998, would require a health plan to pay for at least 48 hours of hospital coverage for a mother after a regular delivery and 96 hours after a Caesarean-section birth.
Insurance companies and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) will be forbidden from pressuring doctors to send the patients home early, or from offering any rebates to the doctors or the patients for a quick discharge.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB