WASHINGTON — In one of President Obama’s last major health care initiatives, the administration is stepping up enforcement of laws that require equal insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses, a move officials say will help combat an opioid overdose epidemic.

A White House task force on Oct. 27 said insurers needed to understand that coverage for the treatment of drug addiction must be comparable to that for other conditions like depression, schizophrenia, cancer and heart disease. As an example, the administration said, insurers may not require prior approval for drugs to treat opioid addiction, like buprenorphine, if they do not impose similar restrictions on drugs with similar safety risks that are prescribed for physical illnesses.

Federal laws and rules requiring mental health parity have been adopted with bipartisan support over the last 20 years, but the task force found that compliance was lagging.

“While the right laws are on the books, they are too often ignored or not enforced,” Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, said in August, promising stronger enforcement of parity laws as part of an ambitious mental health agenda.