Urgent Action Needed!!!

It's time for Congress to GET MOVING!!!

Starting Monday, June 14, we will need everyone to call their senators. Use the toll-free mental health parity Senate hotline (1-866-PARITY-4) and ask them to help get the Wellstone bill to the floor for a vote.

IF you would like to know more about the bill and why we're asking for you to make this phone call, please read below for more information, provided to us by the National Mental Health Association, on what's happening now with the Wellstone Parity Bill and why we need to press for a vote immediately.

Press Senate for Action on Wellstone Parity Bill

Parity Bill Languishes:

With Congress moving from debating the budget to working on a legislative agenda, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act (S. 486 in the Senate and H.R. 953 in the House of Representatives) is still “on hold” even though:

The legislation has the support of 69 Senators and 245 House members.
It has won the endorsement of 361 national organizations.
A survey commissioned by the National Mental Health Association showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans (79%) said they support parity legislation.

Bringing the parity bill to a vote would ensure its passage. But despite the urgings of the bills’ congressional champions, those holding the reins in Congress have stalled parity’s advance.

In November, Senate leaders assured the parity bill’s sponsors that the bill would be taken up early this year. Now, however, those assurances have given way to uncertainty. It has been nearly two years since the President called on Congress to pass a full-parity bill. Congressional opponents simply refuse to acknowledge the facts as they repeat the insurance-industry fiction that a parity law means a substantial increase in health-insurance premiums.

We are Outraged!:

Advocates who have patiently pressed Congress for years to end health-insurance discrimination against people with or at risk of mental health problems have just cause for outrage. We are witnesses to --

Promises not kept
Ongoing congressionally-encouraged discrimination against people with mental illness
Phony cost concerns overtaking widespread human suffering
Pleas for simple fairness being ignored
Denying the majority the right to vote on parity legislation

Call to Action:

Parity opponents assume that advocates’ voices will fade in resignation. Instead, we have to “turn the volume up!” For now, we urge you to focus on the Senate where promises of action were made and where the margin of support is wide. With an election nearing -- making legislators even more attentive to their constituent’s concerns -- we need to turn up the pressure to help the bill’s sponsors, Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), get the Senate moving on parity.