URGENT action alert!!

(republished from Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law email/action alert)

Negotiations on Parity Near Conclusion

The following urgent action alert comes from the Health Policy Committee of theMental Health Liaison Group, co-chaired by Laurel Stine of the Bazelon Centerand Peter Newbould of the American Psychological Association

Targets: All Members of the House of Representatives and Senate.Action: Use the toll-free Parity Hotline, 1-866-parity4 (1-866-727-4894), tocall your U.S. Representative and Senators. (The Parity Hotline reaches theCapitol switchboard, which can connect callers to their members of Congress).

Message: "I am calling to ask that the Representative/Senator urge theLeadership to help conclude negotiations on a mental health parity bill thatcan pass in both houses and become law this year. Relief from health benefitdiscrimination against mental and substance use disorders must wait no longer.

"Background: With suicide claiming some 30,000 lives each year in this country,health-benefit barriers still block millions of Americans from getting neededmental health and substance-use treatment. Given the critical need forCongress to lift those discriminatory barriers and a limited number oflegislative days to do so, there is profound urgency to forging a compromise onmental health parity legislation that will not only yield strong protectionsbut can pass both chambers. We applaud initial steps to reach that compromise,and call on Senate and House leaders to move quickly to ensure enactment of astrong mental health parity law this year. We have been pushing hard since 2001 to enact full mental health parity, andvictory is finally within reach.

Following the Senate's historic passage of S. 558 by unanimous consent in September and House passage of H.R. 1424 on March5, informal negotiations commenced.

Parity supporters across America should contact their Representative and Senators NOW to urge support for successfullyconcluding this process. Senate and House leaders should continue to worktogether to reconcile differences between the versions and produce a bill that can pass in both chambers.

Failure to pass a parity bill in 2008 would further delay relief for millionsof American families who now face discrimination. It would also place the issue directly in the path of a health care policy tornado in 2009 -- healthcare reform - with no assurance that our issue would receive the attention itneeds.

The Legislation: Both S. 558 and H.R. 1424 expand the Mental Health Parity Actof 1996 by prohibiting group health plans from imposing treatment or financiallimitations on mental health benefits that are different from those applied tomedical/surgical services. The legislation applies only to group health plansalready providing mental health benefits and exempts plans sponsored by smallbusinesses of 50 and under employees.

Resources: Fact sheets on parity and rosters of organizations supporting theHouse and Senate bills may be found at http://www.mhlg.org/page18.html