The U.S. Senate is considering passing a Mental Health Parity Act that would require health insurance plans to provide coverage for mental illness equal to the coverage they provide for other illnesses. Currently, many plans provide very little coverage for mental illness, with the result that many Americans struggling with mental illness cannot afford treatment, even if they have health insurance.

Please take a few moments and contact Senator Diane Feinstein's DC office ask her to co-sponsor the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 as Senator Boxer and the 32 other senators who have signed on as co-sponsors.

Use the toll-free Parity Hotline - 1-866-parity4 (1-866-727-4894) -- and ask for Senator Feinstein's office or call her office directly at (202) 224-3841.

Tell them that you are calling to request that Senator Feinstein join Senator Boxer and the 32 other senators who are co-authors for the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 and that you believe it is in alignment with the health reforms that are part of her legislative agenda.

They will ask you for your home zip code. That's it!

If you can take a few more moments, follow up with a short e-mail to Senator Feinstein (the correspondence has to be submitted through her e-mail form) http://feinstein.senate.gov/contact.html. After completing the form, feel free to copy either of the brief letters below or craft your own:

The Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 amends two laws - the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) - and expands upon the existing 1996 federal parity law, which established parity for annual and lifetime dollar limits. The new bill includes prohibitions on unequal financial requirements for mental health and addictions treatment such as co-payments and deductibles. The bill also provides for comparability regarding day and visit limits.

There are now 41 states with parity laws covering 26 million Americans. These laws vary substantially in terms of their scope and requirements. The Senate bill would preempt state parity standards regarding financial requirements and treatment limitations, whether these are part of a parity law or a mandated minimum mental health or addictions treatment benefit. However, the Senate bill would not preempt existing state requirements for insurance plans to either cover or offer mental health or addiction treatment benefits. In addition, the bill would not preempt provisions in state parity laws that require specific diagnoses or a broad listing (e.g., the entire DSM) to be covered equitably.

OR

The impact and cost of untreated mental illness spans generations and affects all of our public health and social service systems, as well as our business community. It is critical to our public health system that mental health parity legislation be passed in order to rebalance the risk pool and costs between our private and public systems.

The value of the federal study that demonstrated there was no increased cost to the insurance system for mental health parity should be given additional consideration � there was no measure for the increased benefit of access and early treatment to the individual or their employers or schools. A recent study in Australia found that their business economy suffers an annual $8 billion loss due to decreased worker productivity related to depression and untreated mental illness). Mental health parity would begin to provide us with the basis for evaluating mental health care as an investment that delivers a measurable return through improved quality of life indicators for individuals, increased success and productivity in our business and school systems and cross system savings throughout. Studies have shown that every $1 investment in treatment yields a $12 savings in other systems.

In California, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to leverage true mental health parity with mental health services act funding for aggressive and effective prevention and early intervention programs, which will yield cost savings and long-term benefits to all of our service systems.

Mental health parity makes sense on both a moral and economic basis.

Sincerely,
F. Jerome Doyle, CEO
EMQ FamiliesFirst

Here's what you can do to help:

Contact your legislators. To locate your legislators:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

• Email Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at www.govmail.ca.gov
• Fax the Governor at 916-445-4633
• Send a letter to the Governor at:
  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
  State Capitol Building
  Sacramento, CA 95814