[NYAPRS Enews] MHW: MH Field Urges Congress to Pass HC Reform Bill

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Field Urges Congress To Press Forward On Passing HC Reform Bill

Mental Health Weekly  February 1, 2010

 

Fearing a potential "roadblock" in the push for health care reform
following the Senate election results in Massachusetts last month,
mental health advocacy and consumer groups have flooded Congress with
letters and policy announcements urging lawmakers to continue their push
for health care reform and enact a comprehensive bill.

 

The field's apprehension is shared by President Obama who during his
State of the Union address last week urged lawmakers to not "abandon"
their work on health care reform.

 

Last November advocates were sensing an eventual victory on reform even
as uncertainty remained over whether the Senate could maintain the
60-vote coalition needed to overcome opposition to the reform
legislation (see MHW, Nov. 16, 2009).

 

The concerns about the need for a continued push on health care reform
followed last month's election in Massachusetts when Republican Scott
Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley for the seat left by the late
Senator Edward Kennedy. News reports indicate that Brown vocally
positioned himself as the "41st vote" needed to defeat passage of the
Senate health care bill. His victory will make passing a health care
bill a bit more challenging, advocates contend.

 

Prior to the Massachusetts election, the House and the Senate and the
Obama Administration were negotiating on the health care reform bill,
said Laurel Stine, director of federal relations for the Judge David L.
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.  "They were on a fast track to
come up with a merged bill based on what the House and Senate had
passed," Stine told MHW.

 

Brown's election in Massachusetts and the fate of the health care reform
bill is an example of textbook "road blocking" for policymaking, said
Stine. "Achieving meaningful reform in health care not only improves the
quality of health care for individuals who have insurance, but it
expands coverage for the uninsured and the underinsured - goals the
field hopes Congress does not lose sight of, said Stine.

 

"Lawmakers must not abandon the path to enacting health care reform
legislation," said Stine. "We can't walk away from this significant
reform."

 

Exploring Options

Lawmakers are exploring many options in their efforts to pass a health
care reform bill, said Chuck Ingoglia, vice president for policy for the
National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (National Council).

 

One option is have the House pass the Senate version of the health care
reform bill and get it to the president's desk for his signature,
Ingoglia told MHW. They could simultaneously adopt a reconciliation bill
and make subsequent modifications, he said. A reconciliation bill would
only require 51 votes to pass in the Senate, he added.

 

The Senate bill has some provisions in it that the House finds
objectionable, such as a tax on more generic health care benefits, said
Ingoglia. "It's still an option that's being discussed. It's hard to
know if that option will be exercised," he said.

 

"We really don't want to see Congress abandon this effort," Andrew
Sperling, director of federal legislative advocacy for the National
Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), told MHW. "There's been an enormous
amount of work going on for more than a year. This was a historic vote
by the House and the Senate."

 

Sperling added, "It would be a shame to see all of this go by the
wayside." 

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