Government Relations Action Alert

Continue Outreach Action for Mental Health Parity

May 23, 2003

THE ISSUE AT HAND

The “Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act” (S. 486/H.R. 953) recently gained a majority of cosponsors in both the House and the Senate!  Congratulations and thank you to NASW members and affiliates for pressing members of Congress to make this very visible commitment that will ease insurance discrimination against mental disorders.  We also achieved a significant victory in April when Sen. Pete Domenici secured $5.4 billion in the final Budget Resolution to offset costs associated with enactment of the legislation.  (See background below for details.)

ACTION NEEDED

Continue your advocacy for passage of the “Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act,” and urge members of the House and Senate to support this important legislation.

Option 1:Telephone your legislators by using the Parity Hotline (1-866-PARITY4…1-866-727-4894).  This toll-free number reaches the Capitol switchboard, which can connect callers to their members of the Senate and House. A sample phone message is below. If you make a phone call, please let us know via e-mail at advocacy@naswdc.org

Option 2: A sample letter supporting the bill, which you can e-mail or fax to members of Congress, has been posted on NASW's Congress Web. Individual telephone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses are available through NASW's Congress Web: www.socialworkers.org/advocacy/grassroots/congressweb.asp

Sample Phone Message

To House Members: “I’m calling, as a professional Social Worker and constituent, to urge the Representative to support the Ramstad-Kennedy mental health parity bill (H.R. 953). It’s vital to pass this legislation, to ban insurance discrimination against people with mental health disorders.”

To Senators: “I’m calling, as a professional Social Worker and constituent, to urge the Senator to support the Domenici-Kennedy mental health parity bill (S. 486).  It’s vital to pass this legislation, to ban insurance discrimination against people with mental health disorders.”

Background

Introduced on February 27, 2003, by Senators Pete Domenici and Edward Kennedy, and Representatives Jim Ramstad and Patrick Kennedy, this critical legislation now has 57 cosponsors in the Senate and 231 in the House.  Only a handful of the previous cosponsors have not signed on to the new bill.  However, many of the newest members of Congress have yet to express their support for mental health parity.  NASW members should continue their outreach efforts to all legislators. (See “Special Targets” list below.)

NASW is encouraged that Sen. Domenici secured $5.4 billion over 10 years in the Budget Resolution approved in April to offset any costs associated with enactment of mental health parity legislation.  A description of that $5.4 billion does not exist in the parity bill, because the funds were included in the Budget Resolution.

Many social workers mobilized after NASW’s March 27, 2003 action alert, which asked our members to contact Senators who sit on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and to urge their Senators to ask Chairman Gregg to schedule a markup immediately on S. 486.  Please continue these calls and letters until that date is announced.  Visit NASW’s Web site for a copy of the March 27 alert: https://www.socialworkers.org/advocacy/default.asp

Special Targets

Previous Senate cosponsors of parity who have yet to cosponsor S. 486

ALABAMA                                Richard C. Shelby (R-AL)

DELAWARE                              Thomas R. Carper (D-DE)

FLORIDA                                  *Bob Graham (D-FL)

GEORGIA                                 Zell Miller (D-GA)

LOUISIANA                               *John B. Breaux (D-LA)

NORTH DAKOTA                       *Kent Conrad (D-ND)

TENNESSEE                            *Bill Frist (R-TN)

WEST VIRGINIA                        Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)

Freshman Senators who have yet to cosponsor S. 486

ALASKA                                   Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

ARKANSAS                              Mark Pryor (D-AR)

GEORGIA                                 Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

MISSOURI                                James Talent (R-MO)

NEW HAMPSHIRE                    John Sununu (R-NH)

NORTH CAROLINA                    Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)

TENNESSEE                            Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

TEXAS                                      John Cornyn (R-TX)

Previous House cosponsors of parity who have yet to cosponsor H.R. 953

ARIZONA                                  Jim Kolbe (R-AZ-8)

CONNECTICUT              *Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT-5)

ILLINOIS                                   *John M. Shimkus (R-IL-19)

MARYLAND                              Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD-6)

NEW JERSEY                           *Mike Ferguson (R-NJ-7)

NEW YORK                              Peter T. King (R-NY-3)

TEXAS                                      Charles A. Gonzalez (D-TX-20)

Freshman Representatives who have yet to cosponsor H.R. 953

ALABAMA                                Jo Bonner (R-AL-1)
                                    Mike Rogers (R-AL-3) 

ARIZONA                                  Trent Franks (R-AZ-2)

CALIFORNIA                             Devin Nunes (R-CA-21)
COLORADO                              *Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO-4)

                                                Bob Beauprez (R-CO-7)

FLORIDA                                  Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL-5)

                                                Katherine Harris (R-FL-13)

                                                Kendrick Meek (D-FL-17)
                                                Tom Feeney (R-FL-24)
                                                Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL-25)

GEORGIA                                 Jim Marshall (D-GA-3)

                                                *Phil Gingrey (R-GA-11)

INDIANA                                   Chris Chocola (R-IN-2)

IOWA                                       Steve King (R-IA-5)

LOUISIANA                               Rodney Alexander (D-LA-5)

MICHIGAN                                Candice Miller (R-MI-10)

                                                Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11)

MINNESOTA                             *John Kline (R-MN-2)

NEVADA                                   *Jon Porter (R-NV-3)

NEW HAMPSHIRE                    Jeb Bradley (R-NH-1)

NEW JERSEY                           Scott Garrett (R-NJ-5)

NEW MEXICO                           Steve Pearce (R-NM-2)

OHIO                                        Michael Turner (R-OH-3)

OKLAHOMA                              *Tom Cole (R-OK-4)

PENNSYLVANIA                       Jim Gerlach (R-PA-6)

SOUTH CAROLINA                    J. Gresham Barrett (R-SC-3)

SOUTH DAKOTA                       William Janklow (R-SD-AL)

TENNESSEE                            *Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7)

TEXAS                                      Jeb Hensarling (R-TX-5)
                                                Michael Burgess (R-TX-26)

                                                                                                ^*John Carter (R-TX-31)

UTAH                                        Rob Bishop (R-UT-1)

Additional House members who should be asked to cosponsor H.R. 953

CALIFORNIA                             Calvin Dooley (D-CA-20)

FLORIDA                                  Allen Boyd (D-FL-2)

LOUISIANA                               *Chris John (D-LA-7)

MISSISSIPPI                             Gene Taylor (D-MS-4)

NORTH CAROLINA                    Mike McIntyre (D-NC-7)

SOUTH CAROLINA                    Henry Brown (R-SC-1)

TEXAS                                      *Ralph Hall (D-TX-4)

Chet Edwards (D-TX-11)

Charles Stenholm (D-TX-17)

                                                Charles Gonzalez (D-TX-20)

WASHINGTON                          Adam Smith (D-WA-9)

WISCONSIN                              David Obey (D-WI-7)

* = member of a key health committee

Sample Senate/House Letter

The Honorable (full name)                                                          
United States Senate/House of Representatives  
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Senator/Representative (last name):

As a constituent, social worker, and member of the National Association of Social Workers, I am writing to urge your support for the “Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act” (S. 486/H.R. 953), sponsored by Senators Pete Domenici and Edward Kennedy, and Representatives Jim Ramstad and Patrick Kennedy.

This bipartisan bill would make great strides in ending the use of arbitrary, one-size-fits-all limits on mental health benefits, which are different from limits on other medical and surgical benefits.  Passage of this legislation would make a real difference for patients, many of whom, seeking help for their mental disorders, now face higher copayments and arbitrary limits on the number of days of care they may receive.

With a majority in both the House and Senate, along with more than 250 national organizations, supporting full mental health parity, it is obvious that this much-needed legislation is long overdue.  President Bush echoed this sentiment last April when he urged Congress to pass parity legislation. 

Please urge congressional leadership to prioritize passage of full mental health parity legislation before the summer recess of the 108^th Congress.  I appreciate your consideration of my concerns, and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,