It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and passage of HB 366 marks one more step on the long road toward ending insurance discrimination against persons with mental illness in Pennsylvania. Despite the roadblocks thrown up by business and insurance interests to stop our progress, advocates have proven again and again that mental health parity coverage is affordable and appropriate. The stranglehold that the insurance industry appears to hold over insurance policy in this state has been loosened a slight bit by the passage of the mental health insurance language in HB 366.
The Pennsylvania Community Providers Association represents over 240 mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse agencies across this state and the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians whom they serve. We thank the legislators for supporting this measure, particularly Rep. Tom Gannon (R-Delaware), who has been courageous and unceasing in his fight to bring adequate, non-discriminatory health coverage to Pennsylvania.
To our friends and our opponents we serve notice that we will be back next session to continue the fight for equitable insurance coverage, for adequate coverage for children, for language that does not restrict coverage to a handful of diagnoses, and for language that includes a meaningful number of Pennsylvanians. We will fight as long as it takes to bring Pennsylvania into the 20th century and on a par with its sister states that prohibit insurance discrimination against mental illness. HB 366 is hardly "parity" coverage, but it is a step closer.