THE SENATE REJECTS MEDICAID CUTS ON MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS

Image via WikipediaSenate Approves Emergency Spending Bill, Rejecting Cuts to Medicaid!

On Thursday the Senate, by a margin of 75-22, approved a package of emergency funding for the current fiscal year that includes an amendment stopping Medicaid regulations that would severely impair the ability of states to finance critical mental illness services. The future of the supplemental funding bill is uncertain. A presidential veto has been threatened against any supplemental funding that is beyond the Administration’s requests for military spending. After next week’s Memorial Day recess, House and Senate leaders will be meeting to decide when and how to send the measure on to the president.

This is an important victory in the ongoing effort to stop the seven proposed Medicaid regulations, including those limiting case management and rehabilitation that are central to publicly funded mental illness treatment and support services for both children and adults. Now bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate are on record in favor of imposing moratoriums on these regulations. Your voice has made a real difference!

The Senate package also includes a range of other funding for priorities important to NAMI. Among these are:

* $96 million rent subsidies for permanent supportive housing (PSH) units for Louisiana and Mississippi ($76 million for Louisiana and $20 million for Mississippi) – these are supportive housing units targeted to current and formerly homeless individuals with mental illness in communities still devastated by the 2005 hurricanes,
* $475 million for VA Polytrauma Centers,
* $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
* $275 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upgrade safety and inspections.

TELL THE SENATE TO PROTECT MEDICAID!

Image via WikipediaTell the Senate to Protect Medicaid!
from: enews@nami.org.
May 21, 2008

Last week the House again acted to pass legislation that would delay a series of federal regulations that would severely limit Medicaid coverage of critical mental illness services including rehabilitation, case management, and school-based services. The delay in the regulations was part of an amendment to the supplemental war funding bill that included this delay on the regulations passed by a vote of 256-166.

NAMI is extremely grateful to advocates that contacted their House members –your voice made a real difference! Now the effort to include the delay in the Medicaid regulations shifts to the Senate, where the war supplemental funding bill will be taken up this week. Adding the moratoria to this "must pass" supplemental funding bill is likely the best legislative opportunity aimed at stopping these regulations and protecting Medicaid funding for critical community-based services for both children and adults living with serious mental illness. Because the President has threatened to veto the moratoria on the Medicaid regulations, it is critical that the Senate reject any effort to strip the provision from the amendment to the war supplemental funding bill (HR 2642).


ACT NOW!

We need your help again! Send a message to your Senators urging them to make sure the Medicaid moratoria stay in the war supplemental funding bill. In addition to protecting Medicaid, tell your Senators to support provisions in the bill that address critical priorities at home including:

* $96 million rent subsidies for permanent supportive housing (PSH) units for Louisiana and Mississippi ($76 million for Louisiana and $20 million for Mississippi) – these are supportive housing units targeted to current and formerly homeless individuals with mental illness in communities still devastated by the 2005 hurricanes,
* $475 million for VA Polytrauma Centers,
* $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
* $275 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upgrade safety and inspections.
For More info
Background on the Medicaid Moratoria Legislation