September 17, 2009

Urgent Action Needed: Tell Your Reps to Sign On to Letter to Administration in Support of Parity Regs; Deadline Sept 21!

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus Releases Draft of America’s Healthy Future’s Act; Register for Upcoming Webinar to Hear National Council Analysis

National Council Sends Letter in Support of Health Care Reform to President Obama

National Council Submits Congressional Testimony on Justice-Involved Individuals with Mental Illness & Addiction

2008 National Survey on Drug Use & Health Released; Provides Prevalence and Unmet Need for Care Data

Urgent Action Needed: Tell Your Reps to Sign On to Letter to Administration in Support of Parity Regs; Deadline Sept 21!
Earlier this week, the National Council sent an Action Alert for members to ask their U.S. Representatives to sign on to a letter circulated by Representative Kennedy. This letter asks the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury to issue parity regulations for mental health and addiction treatment services as soon as possible.

Why is this Important?
The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was enacted on October 3, 2008 and requires the issuance of regulations by October 3, 2009. With or without regulations, this Act goes into effect for most plans on January 1, 2010. Not having regulations issued in a timely manner, with clearly outlined implementation details, will greatly limit the intended positive impact of the Act.

The National Council and other advocates previously circulated a Senate sign on letter and advocates would like to reinforce this effort with a similar letter signed by U.S. Representatives.

24 Representatives Have Signed on Already: Send them a Thank You Note
The following Representatives have already signed on to this letter: C. Maloney, D. Young, J. Schakowsky, C. Murphy, S. Farr, T. Baldwin, J.W. Olver, D. Wu, J. McGovern, D.F. Edwards, M. Kaptur, J.P. Moran, C. Van Hollen, J. Yarmuth, X. Lofgren, L. Roybal-Allard, J. Sestak, J. Langevin, S. Reyes, B. Stupak, R.M. Grijalva, J. Lewis, C. Shea-Porter, S. Cohen.

If you are a constituent of one of these Representatives, send him/her a thank you note to emphasize the importance of their leadership on this issue.

If Your Representative Has Not Signed on, Deadline is Monday, Sept. 21
The deadline for Representatives to sign on is September 21; given current health care reform discussions occurring in Congress, having parity regulations will be vital to ensuring equitable inclusion of addiction and mental health services in any reform bill passed by Congress. 
ACT NOW!

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus Releases Draft of America’s Healthy Future’s Act; Register for Upcoming Webinar to Hear National Council Analysis
On September 16, Senator Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, released a draft of America’s Healthy Future’s Act (referred to as the ‘Chairman’s Mark’). According to a press release from the Chairman, this bill will “bar insurance companies from discriminating against people based on health status, denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, or imposing annual caps or lifetime limits on coverage” and will not add to the federal deficit.

This bill also will allow all state Medicaid programs to cover childless adults at or below 133% of federal poverty level, assists Medicare beneficiaries in the coverage gap (or ‘donut hole’) to purchase their prescription drugs, and creates exchanges to purchase insurance in the individual and small group market.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to begin Mark-Up of the draft bill on September 22. The National Council is currently in the process of doing an analysis of the Chairman’s Mark. Join us on September 23 at 2pm EST for the next in our special series of Health Care Reform Update webinars to learn more about this bill.

National Council Sends Letter in Support of Health Care Reform to President Obama
This week, the National Council submitted a letter to President Barack Obama, supporting the President’s health care reform efforts. Given data showing that one in five Americans below 200% of poverty have mental disorders including serious mental illnesses, Linda Rosenberg, President & CEO of the National Council states that “providing stable, affordable coverage to this population is vitally important for the health and welfare of these individuals, their families, communities and our nation”.

A National Council report estimates that coverage expansions will add 2.8 million low income persons to the public mental health system and increase the patient/consumer average caseload of CMHCs by 50% upon full implementation in 2013. 

National Council Submits Congressional Testimony on Justice-Involved Individuals with Mental Illness & Addiction
On September 15, the National Council submitted testimony to the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussing the urgent need to address the overwhelming number of individuals under criminal justice supervision who are in need of care for a mental illness and/or substance use disorder.  In its testimony, the National Council highlighted several important programs for this population and outlined several strategies for the Congress and Administration to ensure that individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders are diverted from incarceration when appropriate and linked with healthcare and support services before release in order to assist their re-entry into the community and to reduce recidivism.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Suspension of Medicaid eligibility instead of termination
• For those whose Medicaid benefits have been terminated, pre-release planning, including the submission of an application for Medicaid, SSI and other benefits well before release
• Diversion programs to try to enable diverted individuals to live successfully in the community, thereby reducing the risk of homelessness, recidivism, and institutionalization.
• Re-entry programs designed to connect individuals released from incarceration with supports and services that foster effective integration into the community.

2008 National Survey on Drug Use & Health Released; Provides Prevalence and Unmet Need for Care Data
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released results from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH), an annual survey assessing use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older. The report also identified most common barriers to care. The top three barriers to care reported for individuals with illicit drug or alcohol use problem were lack of health coverage or ability to afford it on their own, not ready to stop using, and reported ability to handle problem without treatment.  For those that reported an unmet need for mental health treatment, the following were the top three barriers to care reported: inability to afford care, believing at the time that the problem could be handled without care and not knowing where to go for care.

Other Key findings include:

Prevalence

• An estimated 20.1 million Americans aged 12 or older reported being current illicit drug users, representing a rate similar to that of 2007.
• About 129 million Americans aged 12 or older are current alcohol drinkers, representing about half of the American population. Most (84.6%) of the 4.5 million past year alcohol initiates were younger than age 21 at the time of initiation.
• In 2008, an estimated 22.2 million persons (8.9%) were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year. Between the years 2002-2008, there has not been a significant change in this rate.
• In 2008, there were an estimated 9.8 million adults with SMI, representing 4.4% of adults.

Unmet Need for Treatment

• 20.8 million persons aged 12 or older (8.3%) needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty substance abuse facility in the past year.
• There were 10.6 million adults aged 18 or older (4.7%) who reported an unmet need for mental health care in the past year, of which 5.1 million adults didn’t receive any mental health services in the past year.
  You can read a press release and review the full report by clicking here.