(July 28, 2017) The most recent and final US Senate bill proposed this legislative session to repeal the Affordable Care Act died on the Senate floor early this morning, in a vote of 49-51. This year, several Congressional actions have been taken around multiple proposals to repeal and/or replace aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
These proposals threatened to undermine and restrict care and access to treatment for people with severe mental illness, in opposition to the great strides towards better care made in the bipartisan passage of the 21st Century Cures Act.
We are encouraged that the uncertainty of mass changes to Medicaid, including expansion, preexisting conditions and mental health benefits covered as essential health benefits have been laid to rest. Now, we make an earnest appeal for Congress to pick up the mantle and work together to fund and expand programs that help fix the failures in our mental health system.
We remain motivated by last year’s federal successes, but we must not lose sight of all the work the remains. We must shift the care of people with serious mental illness from the criminal justice system back onto appropriate medical and psychiatric systems. This includes:
- Repealing the IMD exclusion
- Fully funding assisted outpatient treatment programs
- Fully funding research and data collection into the role of serious mental illness in the criminal justice system
- Fully funding ACT, CIT and FACT programs
- Imposing penalties for boarding psychiatric crisis patients in emergency rooms and jails
- Clarifying HIPAA for providers
- Transporting people in behavioral health crisis by ambulances, not police cars.
Crisis is not a crime, and in the wake of the healthcare debate, we implore Congress to refocus efforts on reform and care.