Action
Alert
8/30/07 Vol. 4
No. 10
UPDATE ON FEDERAL PARITY BILLS
Working hard to protect our law! Since May, coalition leaders have been working with U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to protect Washington State's mental health parity law from preemption by a weak federal parity law. If enacted, the original version and subsequent versions of Senate Bill 558 (S. 558) would have been a major step backward for mental health consumers and advocates in Washington State. The coalition has not spent its resources trying to improve substantive provisions of the federal bills, but instead has focused on protecting Washington State's parity law from federal preemption.
Good news! After several unsuccessful proposals to fix S. 558's problematic preemption language by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, we now have a draft proposal from the committee that addresses our concerns. Anytime you work with the U.S. Congress on issues that involve state versus federal law, nothing guarantees 100 percent protection from federal preemption. The coalition believes, however, that the August 2, 2007 draft of S. 558 will protect Washington's mental health parity law. (Please see the attached letter dated August 23, 2007 for more information.)
Help from key leadership! The effort to fix the preemption issue took hard work and long hours by many key leaders, and the job may still not be done depending on the political situation. The coalition would like to recognize the following people for their leadership roles on the preemption issue: U.S. Senator Patty Murray and her staff, Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and his staff, and Mila Koffman, professor of law at Georgetown University. The coalition would also like to recognize U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and Governor Christine Gregoire for their support and commitment.
House Bill 1424. While we prefer the substantive provisions of H.R. 1424, the bill may not protect Washington State's parity law from federal preemption. We prefer the approach to preemption taken in the August 2, 2007 version of S. 558. We hope the senate's approach to protecting state laws from federal preemption will be included in any federal parity law.
New consumer document. We have updated the 2005 Consumer Information document to reflect the expansion of Washington's mental health parity law to the small group (business) and individual insurance markets.The next phase of the parity law becomes effective on January 1, 2008. Please review the attached Important Consumer Information document to find out how insured consumers will benefit from the expansion of the parity law and the next implementation phase. (The document is also available at www.paritywa.org/publications.htm on the coalition’s website.)
We urge you to distribute this document through your email network, as inserts in your publications, and at public events.
Stay tuned. Congress reconvenes after Labor Day at which time we will see what becomes of the 2007 federal parity bills. The coalition will continue to monitor the bills and advocate against federal preemption of stronger state parity laws. Thank you for your communication last June to our U.S. Senators and Representatives.
Please be sure to transmit this Action Alert! and the two attachments to everyone in your email network.
If you have any questions about the coalition or the federal parity bills, please contact Chelene Alkire at (206) 216-2545 or by email at chelenea@wsha.org.
Randy Revelle, Chairman
Washington Coalition for Insurance Parity
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