The long-sought bill that Sen. Pete Domenici initiated in order to require mental health insurance coverage in parity with somatic conditions was passed by Congress on Friday. Actually President George W. Bush quickly signed it into law today. The Senate had passed it on Wednesday.

The mental-health measure was among provisions added to the financial rescue package to win support after the House initially rejected the bailout legislation. The bill bars insurers from charging higher deductibles, co-payments, coinsurance or out-of-pocket expenses, or imposing limits including frequency of treatment, number of visits and days of coverage for mental health and addiction care.

Domenici has a daughter diagnosed with atypical schizophrenia. He got involved in the parity issue after joining a National Alliance on Mental Illness support group nearly 20 years ago. "The first real understanding of how broad the problem was came from those meetings where I met with mothers and fathers who had children who were mentally ill, and they were going bankrupt because they couldn't pay the health bills, or their children were in jails instead of hospitals," Domenici said.

The final bill was amended by the Senate so that it will include a raft of tax breaks, higher limits on deposit insurance and legislation that would require cost and coverage parity between mental health and medical benefits in insurance plans that offer both. This is helping to end discrimination against those who seek treatment for mental illness.

The plan was backed by a 263-171 vote in the House of Representatives before being signed by the President.