Mental Health Parity Enforcement and Funding Act
Latest action: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. (2026-06-30)
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What this bill does
This bill would let the federal government impose civil monetary penalties on group health plans and the companies that run or service them when they violate mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements, which generally require that mental health benefits be covered on terms comparable to physical health benefits. It extends existing penalty authority (previously focused on genetic information rules) to cover these parity violations, and it provides $30 million per year from 2027 through 2031 to the agency that enforces these rules.
Who it affects
It would most affect employer-sponsored group health plans, their administrators, insurers, and service providers, as well as the workers and families whose mental health and substance use coverage is governed by parity rules.
Key points
- Expands ERISA civil monetary penalties to apply to failures to meet mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements.
- Extends who can be penalized to include plan sponsors, service providers, and plan administrators of group health plans.
- Allows the Secretary to enforce the parity requirements under section 712 through these penalties.
- Appropriates $30 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 to the Employee Benefits Security Administration for enforcement.
- The penalty changes would apply to plan years beginning more than one year after the bill becomes law.
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1 · Your position
If you support this
Supporting this bill means backing new financial penalties on health plans and administrators that fail to meet mental health parity rules, plus federal funding to enforce those rules.
If you oppose this
Opposing this bill means keeping the current enforcement setup without these added penalties and without the $30 million per year in enforcement funding.
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