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Although it’s still early in the year, Congress has already moved on
many issues related to mental health—some of their actions will
benefit people who have mental health disorders and others would
jeopardize access to care. NMHA encourages advocates to contact
their members of Congress regularly to voice their opinions on
local and federal policies that will affect mental health care and
Americans’ access to it.
Senate Restores Medicaid, Raises Spending Cap
Thanks to grassroots pressure from mental health advocates and
the leadership of Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Jeff Bingaman,
D-N.M., the Senate approved an amendment in March that
restored $14 billion in federal Medicaid funding that had been cut
from the Senate budget resolution. All Senate Democrats and
seven Republicans voted for the amendment. The Senate also
closely passed an amendment sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy,
D-Mass., to raise the federal government’s cap on discretionary
spending by $6 million to nearly $849 billion. By raising the cap,
this amendment represents the best opportunity to allow
Congress to make additional investments in federal health
agencies, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Health
Resources and Services Administration. The House of
Representatives' adoption of Medicaid cuts continues to pose a
threat, compelling advocates to sustain the pressure on Congress
to drop these cuts.
Hearings Held on Medicare’s Dual Eligibles
The Senate Special Committee on Aging, chaired by Sen. Gordon
Smith, R-Ore., held a hearing in early March to call attention to
the impact of the new Medicare drug benefit program on people
who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The
prescription drugs that people who are dually eligible take are
currently paid for by Medicaid. After Jan. 1, 2006, however, the
drugs will be paid for by Medicare. Among other reasons, Sen.
Smith called the hearing, which featured U.S. Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan, to
ensure that there’s no risk of gaps in coverage during the
transition between Medicaid and Medicare, a concern of NMHA’s.
Senate Agrees to Include Family Opportunity Act in Budget
Sens. Kennedy and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, were successful in
including the Family Opportunity Act (FOA) as an amendment to
the Senate’s budget resolution. This legislation would allow
families with incomes of up to 300 percent of the federal poverty
level and whose children have significant psychiatric and other
disabilities to buy into the Medicaid program, even though their
incomes would otherwise disqualify them from the program. Such
an opportunity will allow these families to afford care for their
children in community- or home-based settings, instead of
institutional care. FOA will also establish a demonstration project
that will give children and teens in certain states who receive
services in psychiatric residential treatment centers to qualify
instead for community- or home-based care.
Bill May Undermine State Parity Laws
The House Education and Workforce Committee approved the
Small Business Health Fairness Act in mid-March. This bill would
allow small businesses to form association health plans so that
they can jointly purchase insurance coverage for their employees
free of state regulation. Research has shown, however, that these
plans are largely ineffective in helping workers obtain insurance
coverage. By exempting such plans from state regulation, Congress
would put them beyond the reach of a state's parity law. A similar
Senate committee is now considering a version of the bill.
To find out more information about these and other subjects,
go to www.nmha.org and click on “Policy Alerts.” You can
also have NMHA’s policy alerts delivered directly to you by
visiting www.nmha.org and clicking on “Get the latest news from
the field.”
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