Tell the Senate to Protect Medicaid!
May 21, 2008
Last week the House again acted to pass legislation that would delay a series of federal regulations that would severely limit Medicaid coverage of critical mental illness services including rehabilitation, case management, and school-based services. The delay in the regulations was part of an amendment to the supplemental war funding bill that included this delay on the regulations passed by a vote of 256-166.
NAMI is extremely grateful to advocates that contacted their House members –your voice made a real difference! Now the effort to include the delay in the Medicaid regulations shifts to the Senate, where the war supplemental funding bill will be taken up this week. Adding the moratoria to this "must pass" supplemental funding bill is likely the best legislative opportunity aimed at stopping these regulations and protecting Medicaid funding for critical community-based services for both children and adults living with serious mental illness. Because the President has threatened to veto the moratoria on the Medicaid regulations, it is critical that the Senate reject any effort to strip the provision from the amendment to the war supplemental funding bill (HR 2642).
ACT NOW!
We need your help again! Email your Senators urging them to make sure the Medicaid moratoria stay in the war supplemental funding bill. In addition to protecting Medicaid, tell your Senators to support provisions in the bill that address critical priorities at home including:
- $96 million rent subsidies for permanent supportive housing (PSH) units for Louisiana and Mississippi ($76 million for Louisiana and $20 million for Mississippi) – these are supportive housing units targeted to current and formerly homeless individuals with mental illness in communities still devastated by the 2005 hurricanes,
- $475 million for VA Polytrauma Centers,
- $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
- $275 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upgrade safety and inspections.
Click here to view additional background material on the Medicaid regulations.
