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109th Congress: Sign On Letters
A sign-on letter is a common method for multiple organizations to support or oppose proposed legislation. The effectiveness of sign-on letters is based on the content of the letter and the quality and size of the organizations listed.
Why do we "sign-on" to non-eating disorder bills and letters? Because we are a part of a larger community of national nonprofit organizations working together to improve health care. Also, eating disorders are both physical and mental health issues. If we see a link to our issue, even when the bill does not directly mention eating disorders, we consider whether to demonstrate our support by lending our name. Each time the EDC signs on in support of a bill (or a letter to a member of Congress), we are building bridges with other nonprofits, and we are showing decision-makers that an issue is also relevant to our field.
Letter Supporting S. 2510, the Small Employers Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) Act
Letter Opposing Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act (S.1955)
Letter Supporting Medicaid Funding and Mental Health Parity
Supporting the Positive Aging Act of 2005 (S. 1116) and (H.R. 2926)
Supporting the Keeping Families Together Act (S. 380) and (H.R. 823)
Supporting the Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act of 2005
Supporting the Smith-Bingaman amendment to the Senate Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Resolution
Opposing (H.R. 525) and (S. 406), Association Health Plan Exemptions
Supporting the Medicare Mental Health Copayment Equity Act
Opposing Medicaid Cuts
Supporting the Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act
Supporting the Smith-Bingaman Amendment in Conference
Letter Supporting S. 2510, the Small Employers Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) Act
May 2006
Dear Senators Durbin and Lincoln:
The undersigned organizations in the Mental Health Liaison Group are writing to express our support for S. 2510, the Small Employers Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) Act. We recognize the difficulty that small business owners and other small non-profit entities face in attempting to provide affordable health insurance to their employees. Your legislation addresses that issue while preserving the important protections enacted in states to ensure access to comprehensive health benefits, including mental health services.
S. 2510 would make insurance for small purchasers more affordable by providing for shared insurance risk through a large nationwide pool. In stark contrast, competing bills would undermine the vital insurance principle of shared risk and, as a result, drive up costs for many. S. 2510 takes another step to achieve affordability for all patients by prohibiting insurers from charging higher premiums based on health status, gender or industry, while allowing states to require greater protections.
Most importantly, S. 2510 does not sacrifice quality of coverage for affordability or allow the offering of second-class health insurance to small businesses. Within the SEHBP program, small business owners, employees and their family members would be covered by all of the consumer protections in their home states — including hard-won state mental health parity laws and mandated benefit laws. In addition to preserving access to comprehensive health services for consumers, S. 2510 preserves the crucial role of states as health insurance regulators and laboratories of innovation.
The Mental Health Liaison Group is committed to helping the millions of Americans without health insurance — many of whom own or work for small businesses. We are very pleased to support legislation that will both help entities that cannot now afford health insurance while maintaining critical state consumer-protection laws, including those protecting people with or at risk of mental health problems.
Sincerely,
October 14, 2005
| The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 |
The Honorable Bill Frist Majority Leader U.S. Senate Washington, DC 20510 |
Dear Mr. Speaker and Majority Leader Frist:
Congress has taken important first steps in providing for initial emergency needs created by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The undersigned organizations look forward to working with you to ensure that remaining emergent needs are met. But it is not too early to consider and act on the lessons learned from this disaster.
Natural disasters like Katrina take an obvious toll – destroying homes, businesses and whole communities, taking lives and uprooting families. But the impact of such destruction also takes an insidious toll on mental health. Studies show that up to 30% of those exposed to a major disaster are at risk for developing mental health problems if early effective mental health services are not provided. The research shows that children are particularly vulnerable, and that failure to provide needed mental health care can lead to school failure, adjustment difficulties and continuing problems in adulthood.
Hurricane Katrina underscores the vulnerability of all Americans to mental health problems, and the need for access to services. Millions of Americans face insurance barriers to needed mental health care. President Bush declared in 2002 that unfair treatment limitations in mental health coverage deprive many Americans of effective care they need to regain their health and productivity. He stated that health insurance policies should not apply unfair treatment limitations or financial requirements on mental health benefits, and called on Congress to pass legislation to establish full mental health parity. We urge Congress to pass legislation this session to end continuing discriminatory health insurance practices that arbitrarily deny people needed mental health treatment.
The long-term emotional upheaval of a life-threatening event like a hurricane is seldom visible to us in the same way as a flooded street or a shattered building. Its effect on our long-term productivity and health are also not always apparent. Yet those who need care very often find that health insurance limits the duration of covered mental health treatment to a specified number of treatment sessions without regard to the clinical need in a way that would be unthinkable for an individual being treated for diabetes, heart disease, or even for equally “invisible” back pain. A few counseling sessions are unlikely to suffice for a suicidal person seeking to regain his or her mental health. Short-term stress management will not necessarily enable an emotionally distraught hurricane survivor to recover. Mental health care may require a longer-term process of recovery and rehabilitation, just as may be required to recover from a physical injury. Yet one of our principal health-financing systems -- employer-sponsored insurance -- routinely and arbitrarily slams the door on a full course of treatment needed for a patient to recover and return to productive employment.
This problem, in sharper focus as a result of recent events, has been ongoing for quite some time. Without an effective federal mental health parity law, people in group health plans themselves must pay more out of pocket for medically necessary mental health care. Loopholes in the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 continue to make accessing one’s mental health benefits more expensive than one’s physical health benefits. Too many people just do not have the means to bear the higher costs imposed on mental health care, and, despite having insurance coverage, have been forced to turn to Medicaid and other public programs. It is time to end such cost-shifting.
Many states have recognized the inequities in discriminatory insurance practices and have enacted mental health parity laws to give workers and their families fair access to mental health care, but far too many Americans are still not covered by such state protections and continue to have difficulty in getting the treatment they need.
As you know, the current partial parity law expires on December 31, 2005. Simply passing another extension of the law is no remedy and would further perpetuate the discrimination faced by those with mental health needs. Please work with the sponsors of the mental health parity legislation to get it passed this year.
Sincerely,
Academy for Eating Disorders
A Chance to Heal
Alliance for Children and Families
Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Neurology
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Physician Assistants
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation
American Association of Children’s Residential Centers
American Association of Pastoral Counselors
American Association of Practicing Psychiatrists
American Association of School Administrators
American Association of Suicidology
American Association on Mental Retardation
American College of Mental Health Administration
American Counseling Association
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Hospice Foundation American Jail Association
American Hospital Association
American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association
American Medical Student Association
American Mental Health Counselors Association
American Music Therapy Association
American Nurses Association
American Occupational TherapyAssociation
American Orthopsychiatric Association
American Osteopathic Association
American Pediatric Society
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Nurses Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American Psychotherapy Association
American Public Health Association
American School Counselor Association
American School Health Association
American Society of Addiction Medicine
American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology
American Therapeutic Recreation Association
America's HealthTogether
Anna Westin Foundation
Anxiety Disorders Association of America
The Arc of Salem County (NJ)
Association for the Advancement of Psychology
Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America
Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Association to Benefit Children
Attention Deficit Disorders Association
Autism Society of America
Barbara Schneider Foundation
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Brain Injury Association of America, Inc.
Center for the Advancement of Health Center for Eating Disorder Recovery (CEDaR)
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty
Child Welfare League of America
Clinical Social Work Federation
Clinical Social Work Guild 49, OPEIU Council on Social Work Education County of Santa Clara, CA
Cure Autism Now
Dads and Daughters
Davis Y. Ja and Associates Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Disability Service Providers of America
Easter Seals Eating Disorder Center of Denver
Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action
Eating Disorders Institute
Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center
The Elisa Project Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems
Families For Depression Awareness
Families USA Family Voices
Featherweight, Inc.
Federation of American Hospitals
Federation of Behavioral, Psychological & Cognitive Sciences
Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health
Freedom From Fear
Gail R. Schoenbach/FREED Foundation
Gurze Books Harvard Eating Disorders Center
HEED/Helping to End Eating Disorders Foundation
Human Rights Campaign Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research
International Association of Jewish Vocational Services
International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
Johnson Institute Kentucky Center for Mental Health Studies
Kids Project
Kristen Watt Foundation for Eating Disorders Awareness
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Learning Disabilities Association of America
Light For Life Foundation International
MentalHealth AMERICA, Inc.
Monte Nido Residential Center
NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of New York City, Inc.
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
National Association for Children’s Behavioral Health
National Association for the Dually Diagnosed
National Association for Personality Disorder
National Association for Rural Mental Health
National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders – ANAD
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
National Association of Counties
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors
National Association of Mental Health Planning & Advisory Councils
National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems
National Association of School Nurses
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Social Workers
NASW, Alabama Chapter
NASW, Alaska Chapter
NASW, Arizona Chapter
NASW, Arkansas Chapter
NASW, California Chapter
NASW, Colorado Chapter
NASW, Connecticut Chapter
NASW, Delaware Chapter
NASW, Florida Chapter
NASW, Georgia Chapter
NASW, Guam Chapter
NASW, Hawaii Chapter
NASW, Idaho Chapter
NASW, Illinois Chapter
NASW, Indiana Chapter
NASW, International Chapter
NASW, Iowa Chapter
NASW, Kansas Chapter
NASW, Kentucky Chapter
NASW, Louisiana Chapter
NASW, Maine Chapter
NASW, Maryland Chapter
NASW, Massachusetts Chapter
NASW, Metro DC Chapter
NASW, Michigan Chapter
NASW, Minnesota Chapter
NASW, Mississippi Chapter
NASW, Missouri Chapter
NASW, Montana Chapter
NASW, Nebraska Chapter
NASW, Nevada Chapter
NASW, New Hampshire Chapter
NASW, New Jersey Chapter
NASW, New Mexico Chapter
NASW, New York City Chapter
NASW, New York State Chapter
NASW, North Carolina Chapter
NASW, North Dakota Chapter
NASW, Ohio Chapter
NASW, Oklahoma Chapter
NASW, Oregon Chapter
NASW, Pennsylvania Chapter
NASW, Puerto Rico Chapter
NASW, Rhode Island Chapter
NASW, South Carolina Chapter
NASW, South Dakota Chapter
NASW, Tennessee Chapter
NASW, Texas Chapter
NASW, Utah Chapter
NASW, Vermont Chapter
NASW, Virgin Islands Chapter
NASW, Virginia Chapter
NASW, Washington Chapter
NASW, West Virginia Chapter
NASW, Wisconsin Chapter
NASW, Wyoming Chapter
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council on the Aging
National Council on Family Relations
National Disability Rights Network
National Down Syndrome Congress
National Eating Disorders Association
National Education Association
National Health Law Program
National Hopeline Network
National Housing Conference
National Human Services Assembly
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
National Medical Association
National Mental Health Association
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
National Network for Youth
National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide
National Partnership for Women and Families
National Recreation and Park Association
National Research Center for Women & Families
National Rural Health Association
National Schizophrenia Foundation
National TASC
National Therapeutic Recreation Society
New Horizons NISH--creating employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities
Northamerican Association of Masters in Psychology
Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
Ophelia’s Place
People With Disabilities Foundation
Pennsylvania Educational Network for Eating Disorders
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office
Remuda Ranch
Renfrew Center Foundation
Rogers Memorial Hospital School
Social Work Association of America
Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
Service Employees International Union
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Personality Assessment
Society for Research on Child Development
Society for Social Work Research
Society for Women’s Health Research
Society of Professors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Suicide Awareness Voice of Education
Suicide Prevention Action Network USA
The Arc of the United States
Therapeutic Communities of America
Tourette Syndrome Association
Union of Reform Judaism
United Cerebral Palsy Association
United Jewish Communities
United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society
U.S. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Association
Wellstone Action
Women of Reform Judaism
Yellow Ribbon International Suicide Prevention Program
National organizations representing consumers, family members,
advocates, professionals and providers.