Urgent Action Alert--Updated

SCHIP Vote by the House Likely This Week

Please urge your lawmakers to support it!

January 12, 2009--Updated January 14: The House of Representatives voted 289 to 139 for
stand-alone legislation (H.R. 2) that would renew and expand health insurance coverage to
children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Senate Finance
Committee plans to mark up its version of the bill on Thursday, with a Senate floor vote likely
in time for President' Obama to sign the bill into law next week .

The legislation is similar to bipartisan bills twice vetoed by President Bush (supported by
the Bazelon Center, see our October 10, 2007 Action Alert). That legislation would have
expanded SCHIP by $35 billion over five years, increasing the number of children covered
from 6 to 10 million.

The legislation would provide $32. 3 billion over four and a half years because program
costs have increased since the vote in the 110th Congress and the revenue that would
have been generated by the proposed 61-cents-per-pack tobacco tax has decreased.
The program would cover about 4 million children who would otherwise be uninsured.

To Senators: Include Parity and Coverage for Legal Immigrants

H.R. 2 includes an option for states to extend health coverage to pregnant women and children
who are legal U.S. immigrants, eliminating the five-year wait after entry to the country. Advocates
urge Congress to extend mental health parity benefits to SCHIP children for the first time. Under
such a provision, in states that offer health insurance coverage under SCHIP, the arbitrary limits
on mental health care that children currently face under the program, such as caps on coverage
of inpatient days and outpatient visits, would be gone.

The proposed language would expressly provide mental health parity by directing that any financial
requirements or treatment limitations that apply to mental health or substance abuse services
must be no more restrictive than the requirements or limits that apply to other medical services.
It would also eliminate a harmful provision in current law that authorizes states to lower the amount
of mental health coverage they provide to children in SCHIP down to 75 percent of the coverage
provided in the benchmark plans listed in the statute as models for states to use in developing
their SCHIP plans (see the Bazelon Center's January 2008 Mental Health Policy Reporter.

The SCHIP program was temporarily extended until March 31, 2009. Early enactment of
SCHIP reauthorization would help serve as a down payment towards comprehensive
health care reform and serve as an important first victory for incoming President Barack
Obama.

What You Can Do

Call your Senators and urge them to support passage of SCHIP with mental health parity
and legal-immigrant coverage. (See How to Contact Your Lawmakers.)
Remind them that:

• Mental health parity was approved by Congress under the SCHIP bills vetoed by
  President Bush in the 110th Congress and this language must be included again.
  The SCHIP statute must include legislative language that restricts financial and
  treatment limitations for mental health coverage for ALL SCHIP plans.
• Mental disorders affect about one in five American children and mental health care
  is a key component of the array of services needed for healthy childhood
  development.
• Because low-income children enrolled in Medicaid and SCHIP have the highest rates
  of mental health problems it is important to eliminate arbitrary and restrictive
  mental health limits so children can access treatment.
• Without needed treatment, children with mental disorders are at increased risk
  forschool failure, contact with the juv enile justice system and even suicide.
  

For more information, see the Bazelon Center's healthcare reform issue brief on public
programs at http://www.bazelon.org/issues/healthreform

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