TAKE ACTION
Contact Your Legislators!
First, find your legislators via the links below.
For the House of Representatives:
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
For the Senate:
Using contact information posted on your representatives' websites, you can place a call or send them a letter. You can also email your legislators using the text boxes located on each of their individual webpages. For those choosing to send a letter or an email message, we invite you to use the sample text below:
Your Name
Street Address
City
Date
The Honorable First Name Last Name
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman(woman) XX,
As a member of the Eating Disorders Coalition and someone who has personally suffered the impact of living with an eating disorder, I am writing you today to ask your support for the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act (H.R. 1193). This is the first comprehensive eating disorders bill in the history of Congress. By focusing on research, education, prevention and treatment this bill is a beacon of hope for the millions of people currently suffering from an eating disorder.
It is estimated that 9 million Americans suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and other eating disorders. Eating disorders are associated with a host of medical complications including cardiac arrhythmia, cognitive impairment, osteoporosis, infertility, heart failure and most seriously death. In fact, anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of all mental disorders, upwards of 20%.
Research shows that eating disorders can be successfully overcome with early detection and adequate and appropriate treatment. Unfortunately eating disorders are often undiagnosed by health professionals and/or access to treatment is limited. Less than half of all people with eating disorders receive the treatment needed.
The Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (the FREED Act) can change these state of affairs. H.R. 1193 will save lives by providing more funds for research so that we can better understand, prevent and treat eating disorders, grant programs that provide training for health professionals, and steps toward better access to treatment coverage.
We urge you to sign on as a cosponsor of the FREED Act. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you again for your consideration.
Warm regards,
First and Last Name
Advocate Through the Media!
To contact the media, go to:
To write an oped piece in your local press, we invite you to utilize the suggestions below:
Template suggestion:
- Start with a powerful statement:
Make it personal, specific, and answer the question: “How did, or how would, insurance coverage for you or your loved one affect the care or the finances of your family?”
Examples:
My daughter’s life was saved by the prompt and effective treatment she received for her anorexia nervosa, but one month of treatment cost us her college education.
If our insurance company paid for our son’s inpatient treatment for bulimia the way it paid for our other son’s asthma treatment they might both be well now. But Bulimia isn’t covered by our plan, and our son’s health is permanently damaged.
In our county, there are no treatment clinics qualified to treat our daughter’s eating disorder. Going out of state to get life-saving care meant we weren’t covered. And we are not the only ones.
If our daughter had a tumor, our doctor could act quickly to stop the cancer before it spread. With anorexia, however, we have to wait until she gets so medically compromised that her life is at risk. That’s not fair, and it is not good medicine.
Today, you would not know that bulimia almost stopped my daughter’s heart. But what breaks her heart now is the guilt of her parents losing all retirement savings and her sister being unable to attend college this fall because of the cost of her treatment.
- Personalize the following content:
Eating disorders are TREATABLE illness with genetic underpinnings. With early intervention and assertive treatment patients can go on to full and healthy lives. The Eating Disorders Coalition, a leader in legislative action on this issue, reminds us that eating disorders are a public health problem, with significant prevalence rates, disturbing emotional and social consequences, high mortality rates, widespread misunderstanding of eating disorders, and an inappropriate public response.“
My family’s experience made the issue of mental health parity deeply personal. We have felt the impact of unfair coverage. We know now that mental health care is not secondary to other medical issues. I want to ask everyone touched by this issue to support the Mental Health and Addiction Parity bill on the table in Congress this fall. This bill is the culmination of years of dedicated work by those who understand this issue: members of Congress and advocates and employers and health plans have worked toward a bipartisan solution. The federal parity law would completely end insurance discrimination against mental health and substance use disorder benefits for over 113 million Americans. The bill would preserve strong state parity and consumer protection laws while extending parity protection to 82 million more people who cannot be protected by state laws.
The cost? Estimates vary, but most agree that healthcare costs would rise less than 1% if mental health benefits were covered comparably with other medical issues. This is not a mandate to make insurers cover everyone or at any level – only that mental illnesses be covered comparably with other medical conditions.
It is important that legislators address this bill now, before a new administration and a new Congress take office, and momentum is lost.
I called my Congressperson X, and our two state Senators, X and X to express my support for the Mental Health and Addiction Parity Bill. It took five minutes, and I am proud to be counted. Please, citizens of X, call your representative and our Senators today. (for contact info: www.congress.gov ) Each call counts, and silence does too.
- End with your contact information:
Name
Address
Daytime telephone
- Tips for contacting newspapers
Have you ever wondered how things get into a newspaper? In brief, here are the types of pieces you may see in a typical newspaper:
· Editorial – Written by the editor or publisher of the paper, usually an opinion on a topic of public
interest
· Op-Ed - Usually on the page across from the Editorial (“Opposite Editorial”) is written by readers
and opinion leaders on topics of public interest and usually expressing an opinion or argument for
change, generally 400-700 words
· Letter to the Editor – Short letters from readers, usually in reaction to reporting or editorials, often
less than 200 words – IF YOUR NEWSPAPER ISN’T ABLE TO PUBLISH YOUR OP-ED, YOU CAN SUBMIT
A SHORTER VERSION AS A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
· News – Straight information on current events, not opinion, usually written by newspaper staff
· Features – Longer pieces focusing on a person or an event, usually written by staff, less formal
than news. YOU MAY BE ASKED TO BE INTERVIEWED FOR THIS KIND OF PIECE.
Each newspaper has its own policy on publishing Op-Ed and Letters to the Editor, usually published on their website. It is best to learn the policy and/or call the newspaper before submitting anything, and to make sure to send your letter to the appropriate person.
Tips:
· If a recent story in the newspaper relates to eating disorders or mental health or insurance, make
sure to reference it in your letter
· Editors will generally cut from the latter part of the letter for space. Make sure your main points
come early
· Stay focused on one message: Mental health parity legislation now in Congress
· Email and/or call the editor to confirm your letter’s arrival. Persistence counts, but so does
politeness
· You must give your real name and contact info to be considered for publication. If you want the
paper to make your Op-Ed or letter anonymous, you must make a good argument why. Editors will
not be familiar with the eating disorder world or the illness – and will not automatically understand
the issues of privacy or stigma. If your letter is compelling, however, editors may be willing to
publish anonymous letters.
· Study your local paper to see the types of things usually published, and length
· If sending by email, send in the body of the email, not as an attachment
· Avoid clichés and puns
· All newspapers get many more op-ed columns and letters than they run.
· The bigger the circulation of the publication, the more competition for space
· Most publications will call the writer to confirm authenticity
· The op-ed and letters page is one of the most popular parts of the newspaper
· KISS . keep it short and simple. Use short sentences, and stay focused on your core message
· Do not send identical op-ed pieces or letters to the editor to more than one newspaper in you
area.
· Let the editor know that your op-ed is “exclusive” to that paper
· Be prepared to shorten and re-submit your article as a letter to the editor in case it is not accepted
as an op-ed.
· Don’t overlook TV and radio stations – some accept essays or letters for broadcast
· Check the facts, and say only what you can verify factually from outside sources unless you are
telling your experience
· Don’t just complain; offer a specific action
· Read your letter aloud to yourself to check for errors
· Have other people check your letter for spelling, grammar and meaning before sending
· Monitor the paper for your letter.
· Let us help!
Background on Mental Health Parity
· www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org/legupdate/FactSheetsMPParity110.pdf
· http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/weekinreview/30kers.html