NUHW’s fight for mental health parity

Since our founding in 2009, NUHW has become a leading force in the fight for mental health justice. We are the nation’s only union that prioritizes parity for mental health care as one of its core missions. Our executive board includes psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists who work at hospitals, clinics, and school districts throughout California and Hawai’i.

Now, independent providers can join NUHW as associate members and join forces with unionized behavioral health workers to confront major problems in the industry, including low reimbursement rates and unequal access to care.

In 2024, NUHW’s behavioral health associate members successfully lobbied lawmakers in Sacramento to improve enforcement of mental health parity laws in California.

Our ultimate goal is to change the power dynamic between behavioral healthcare therapists and the healthcare industry, particularly insurance companies. Right now, most therapists are not unionized, leaving insurance companies and employers to hold all the power.

We envision shifting the balance of power by:

• Expanding our legislative work to pass more parity laws and make sure that they’re enforced.
• Advocating for increased reimbursement rate transparency and helping therapists secure higher reimbursements from insurers
• Organizing more behavioral health workplaces.
• Changing laws that prevent private practice therapists from organizing for better access to care, higher reimbursement rates and full parity for behavioral health care.