April 2008 - Bills Worth Supporting in Springfield 

By Hugh Brady

 

A Bill to Protect Mental Health Funding:

 

One of the problems the Illinois state legislature faces when allocating funds for mental health services is that the Governor can take dollars from mental health programs and reallocate or “sweep” them into other programs.  Last fall Governor Blagojevich did just that and many mental health programs across Illinois were forced to curtail services, cut programs or even close facilities. 

 

So this year State Representative Kathy Ryg, who is the chair of the House Disability Services Committee, is sponsoring a bill to prevent the Governor from doing that again.  The bill, HB5761, protects mental health funds from such “sweeps,” and ensures that the funds will be spent on community health services.  The bill also provides that more Medicaid funds from the federal government will be used for mental health services than is now the case. 

 

Rep. Fred Crespo from the Schaumburg and Hanover Park area has signed on as one of the bill’s co-sponsors. 

 

We encourage everyone to drop their State Representative and State Senator a short note encouraging them to co-sponsor and to vote for HB5761.  Illinois spends little enough on mental health as it is.  Passing this bill would protect what little we have. 

 

 

A Bill to Improve Illinois’s Mental Health Parity Laws:

 

Illinois has a pretty good mental health parity law – as far as it goes.  The current law provides that employer-offered group insurance plans must cover mental illnesses on the same basis that they cover any other illnesses, that there can be no gaps or co-pays on mental health services that are more restrictive than those on other illnesses. 

 

One of the defects of the current law is that its definition of mental illnesses does not include eating disorders, so insurance providers are now free to provide limits and restrictions on coverage of treatment for these disorders including such life-threatening illnesses as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. 

 

But earlier this month the Illinois House passed a bill, HB1432, which will add eating disorders to the list of those covered by Illinois’s mental health parity laws.  The vote in the House was 66-42.  The bill’s principal sponsors were Reps. Fred Crespo and Kathy Ryg.  Some of the area Representatives who voted yes on the bill include, Suzie Bassi, Fred Crespo, Jack Franks, Paul Froehlich, Carolyn Krause, Sid Mathias, Rosemary Mulligan, Elaine Nekritz, Kathy Ryg, and Michael Tryon. 

The bill is now awaiting action in the Senate where its prospects are uncertain.  We urge everyone to write to their State Senators urging them to vote yes on this bill.  And if your Representative is one of those who voted yes on the bill, a note saying “thank you” would be very much appreciated. 

If you are not sure how to write or to whom to write, check out the advocacy pages on our NAMI Barrington Area website: 

http://www.namibarringtonarea.org/advocacy_articles/advocating_how_to/advocacy_overview.html