SALEM - In the five years since their son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Kathleen Ris and her husband have spent $100,000 and wiped out their personal savings to get mental health treatment for him.

Her son, now 15, is "doing better every day," Ris says, but the improvement has come after years of fighting with the family's health insurance company.

Ris and the families of other mentally ill Oregonians won a major victory Monday when Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed into law a bill requiring insurance companies to pay for mental-health treatment just as they do for physical ailments.

Backers of equal coverage terms for mental and physical illnesses argue that patients with mental disorders are treated unfairly by insurance policies giving them less generous benefits than are allowed for physical illnesses.

"It means people who have a mental illness won't be discriminated against any more," Ris said. "This is the first time in a long time that I've had real hope that my son and others like him are going to have a real future."

Ris was on hand Monday at a ceremony where Kulongoski put his signature on what Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and others have called one of the most significant health care bills passed by the 2005 Oregon Legislature.

The bill prohibits group health insurers from putting limits on treatment or imposing financial requirements for mental health and substance abuse coverage that aren't required for covering other medical conditions.

Mental health coverage now might provide lower reimbursements for office visits, for example, or put limits on the number of visits covered or on the length of inpatient treatment.

In signing the bill Monday, Kulongoski said Oregon has joined 35 other states in deciding that insurance compensation for the treatment of mental disorders should be no different than for physical ailments.

"Today marks the day when we officially end discrimination in health benefits between mental and physical health problems," the governor said. "But perhaps this day is more important for moving Oregon closer to ending the stigma so often associated with mental health and substance abuse disorders and treatment."

Despite warnings by opponents of the bill who said it would substantially drive up health care costs, requiring mental health parity in insurance has increased premiums by no more than 1-to-2 percent - if at all - in other states, he said.

"This legislation will help improve the lives of thousands of Oregonians and their families," the governor said.