An addiction and mental-health parity bill now pending in the U.S. Senate would override stronger state parity laws, a provision that a pair of Vermont lawmakers want to see stripped from the legislation.

The Rutland Herald reported July 18 that Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) called for bill sponsors to make clear that the legislation would not prevent states from implementing tougher parity legislation.

"We understand that the intention of your bill is to expand coverage to individuals who currently have no protection while at the same time preserving strong state parity laws," the pair wrote to bill sponsors Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Pete Dominici (R-N.M..). "However, there are some who believe the bill will undermine existing state coverage."

Vermont has one of the nation's strongest parity laws on the books, passed in 1997.

Herbert Olsen, general counsel for the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, said the Senate bill "has the potential to preempt important provisions of Vermont's mental-health coverage and mental-health parity law."

However, Sara Rosenbaum of the George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services said she believes the Senate bill would preserve "the ultimate power of the states to determine the reach of these federal protections."

Kennedy's staff also denied that the bill would preempt state parity laws.

Ken Libertoff, executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health, has asked Leahy and Sanders to put a hold on the Senate bill until the preemption issue is resolved. "This bill would be disastrous for Vermont," he said.