3/14/07 Vol. 4 No. 5

TARGETING SENATORS AGAIN!

Second Senate Health Care Committee Vote Required! Since two identical bills on mental health parity proceeded through the Washington State Legislature, the Senate and the House needed to decide which bill would become law. The leadership has decided to act on the House version of the bill, Engrossed House Bill (EHB) 1460, which requires the Senate to vote on this bill. EHB 1460 will be presented to the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 1:30 pm, and then will be acted upon by the full Senate soon thereafter. We are once again urging you to immediately contact the nine Senators on the Health Care Committee and ask them to pass EHB 1460 out of committee.

Contacting All Senators! In the next few days,please email or telephone your state Senator, and any other Senator(s) you know, even if you have already done so, to urge them to vote “yes” on EHB 1460 during the expected floor vote. (See below for our proposed message.) Small business owners’ contacts with state legislators will be especially crucial. If you are a small business owner, please identify yourself as such, and do your best to contact your Senator by early next week.

Suggested Message:

I respectfully urge you to vote “yes” on EHB 1460, the mental health parity bill. It is time to end insurance discrimination against people living with a mental illness! Mental health parity will result in only minimal increases to insurance premiums in the small group and individual insurance markets. These small increases in premiums are more than outweighed by the benefits to small businesses and individuals in terms of reductions in other health care costs, increased productivity, less absenteeism, and fewer claims for disability and unemployment insurance. Please vote “yes” on the mental health parity bill.

Legislative Finder. If you do not know who your Senator is or what district you reside in, please go to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/ . You may also call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to encourage your Senator to vote for parity, but telephoning the Senators’ offices directly is more effective.

 Please be sure to transmit this Action Alert! to everyone in your email network. If you have any questions about the coalition or the parity bill, please contact Chelene Alkire at (206) 216-2545 or by email at chelenea@wsha.org – or me at randyr@wsha.org.

Please reply to this email and let Chelene know you have forwarded our message to your email contacts! Thank you for your continuing support! With your help, we will end insurance discrimination against people living with a mental illness in Washington State!

Randy Revelle, Chairman

Washington Coalition for Insurance Parity