Mental Health Parity - The Psychs are at it one more time.

[Guest guest]

URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO STOP MENTAL HEALTH PARITY!!

 

A New Mental Health Parity Bill Has Been Introduced in the 108th Congress

While the Domenici/Wellstone parity bill was defeated when Congress adjourned last year, another parity bill was introduced on February 27th (S. 486/H.R. 953). It s called the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003. Psychiatric front groups are calling Capitol Hill right now to get co-sponsors on this new bill. Many congressmen who co-sponsored the bill last year are back in Congress. In fact, 62 Senators and 214 Representatives who cosponsored the parity bill last year are now members of the 108th Congress. In addition, over 250 national organizations most of them psych affiliated groups - support enactment of this legislation, and last year President Bush supported mental health parity legislation, although without defining what it should entail.Many congressmen think that mental health parity will only apply to the seriously mentally ill, when in reality the entire Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) all 374 disorders that cannot be proven by any physically-based test would be covered by insurance at the same rate as cancer or diabetes.WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU TO MAKE CALLS, SEND FAXES AND EMAIL CONGRESS URGING THEM TO NOT CO-SPONSOR THIS NEW MENTAL HEALTH PARITY BILL (S. 486/H.R. 953), THAT WILL DRIVE UP HEALTH COSTS, SWELL THE RANKS OF THE UNINSURED, AND MANDATE INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR EVERYTHING FROM MATHEMATICS DISORDER TO CONDUCT DISORDER TO NON-COMPLIANCE WITH TREATMENT DISORDER. THE BILL: Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 (S. 486/H.R. 953) ORIGINAL SPONSORS IN 2003: Sens. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Reps. Jim Ramstad (R-MN), and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)ACTION TO TAKE: Call, Fax and Email your Senators and Representatives and urge them NOT to co-sponsor the mental health parity bill (S. 486 / H.R. 953).HOW TO DO IT: (For Phone Numbers, Fax Numbers and Emails of your members of Congress) Go to the Thomas legislative Website http://www.thomas.loc.gov Go to LINKS : Congress & Legislative AgenciesGo to House / Senate and look up your members using your zip code. Once on their individual website, find Contact informationThen CALL, FAX and Email your members of Congress to NOT co-sponsor Parity. Calls (leaving a message with an aide or receptionist) and Faxes are the best.REASONS MENTAL HEALTH PARITY IS BAD:1) Company health care costs are skyrocketing so fast that adding Mental Health Parity will force them to drop health coverage all together, driving 1-3 million more people into the ranks of the uninsured. 2) Health care costs will rise a staggering 24% this year for workers. Companies can no longer afford to pick up the bill. Mental Health Parity will do nothing but add to this very real problem.3) Psychiatric diagnoses in their diagnostic manual are entirely subjective - these are largely voted into existence in committee by members of the American Psychiatric Association. There is no science to these disorders. They are not like diagnosing a broken leg, cancer or diabetes. Giving mental health practitioners more access to insurance money through Mental Health Parity to cover diagnoses such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Mathematics Disorder is like pouring gasoline on an already out-of-control fire.PLEASE DON T HESITATE ACT NOW! LET S ENSURE THE NUMBERS OF CO-SPONSORS IS LESS THIS YEAR THAN LAST!

 

Love,

 

Doc

Ian "Doc" Shillington N.D.505-772-5889Dr.IanShillington