On April 16, 2021, following the approval of Illinois Senate Bill 202, Mark D. DeBofsky was appointed by Governor Pritzker to a legislatively created task force to study mental health disparity in disability insurance.
The task force was originally established by a law passed by the General Assembly in 2019 (215 ILCS 5/370c.2) “to review the plans and policies for individual and group short-term and long-term disability income insurance issued and offered to individuals and employers in this State in order to examine the use of such insurance for behavioral health conditions. The Task Force shall work cooperatively with the insurance industry, community organizations, businesses and business coalitions, and advocacy groups to reduce the stigma of behavioral health conditions”
In addition,
f) The task force shall:
(1) review existing plans and policies for
individual and group short-term and long-term disability income insurance issued, delivered, and offered in the State;
(2) compare coverage provided by short-term and
long-term disability income insurance policies for behavioral health conditions with coverage provided by such policies for physical conditions and the reasons for differences in coverage;
(3) gather information on the cost of requiring
individual and group short-term and long-term disability income insurance to cover behavioral health conditions at parity with physical conditions; and
(4) provide recommendations on the economic
feasibility and cost effectiveness of requiring individual and group short-term and long-term disability income insurance to cover behavioral health conditions.
