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LEGISLATIVE ALERT for April 2007
The Good News:
Senator Edward Kennedy has introduced a bill
into the Senate which would mandate that health insurance
programs – employer provided and others – offer parity for
mental illness coverage. This means that insurance programs
would have to cover mental illnesses the same way that they
cover other illnesses. Sounds great, right?
The Bad News:
Well it seems that Senator Kennedy’s bill
would override and replace any state laws which also required
insurance programs to cover mental illnesses the same way they
cover other illnesses.
The Good News:
Illinois already has an excellent mental
health parity law. And it’s better than the one offered by
Senator Kennedy.
The Bad News:
If Senator Kennedy’s bill passes, it will
override Illinois’ law and actually reduce the mental health
insurance coverage we have in Illinois.
The Good News:
Representative Patrick Kennedy, the son of
Senator Edward Kennedy, has introduced a similar bill into the
House of Representatives. But Representative Kennedy’s House
bill would allow the states to supersede the proposed federal
law in order to offer better benefits to consumers. So if the
House bill passes, Illinois could still keep its parity laws.
What you should do:
Obviously we want the House version of the
bill to pass. So would you please take a few moments to write a
short note to your US Representative (for most of us it’s either
Melissa Bean or Mark Kirk) and to our US Senators, Richard
Durbin and Barak Obama, and urge them to pass the House version
of the bill which will preserve the strong points of the
Illinois law.
If you’re not
sure how to write or what the addresses are, check the
legislative section of our webpage.
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