The 85th Legislative Session Has Begun!
Visit our 85th Legislative Session page here for the latest updates and information.
National Call-in Day to Protect Mental Health
Updated January 14, 2017
Debate is raging over the future of health care—insert your voice into the conversation to protect mental health. Call Congress. Ask them to protect Medicaid and insurance safeguards that help millions of Americans who get mental health care. NAMI is partnering with the National Council for Behavioral Health, Mental Health America, Addiction Policy Forum and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance to host a National Call-In Day on Tuesday, January 17.
Call , press #2 and enter your zip code
“As a constituent, I would like the Representative to protect people with mental illness who can’t afford to lose health coverage. Please preserve Medicaid and insurance safeguards that help people get mental health care. Thank you.”
Want to do more? Call your Senators with the same message. Call , press #1 and enter your zip code.
NAMI’s 2017 National Policy Priorities
Updated January 8, 2017
Invest in mental health and innovation
- Reject Medicaid caps or block grants that drive down innovation and force state program cuts, putting individuals with mental illness and families at risk
- Support Medicaid expansion, with income-based eligibility, to provide coverage and a pathway to self-sufficiency for individuals with mental health conditions
- Ensure insurance market reforms include mental health and substance use disorder coverage in every health plan and at the same level (parity) as other health conditions
- Increase investment at NIH and NIMH in understanding, diagnosing and treating mental illness
Learn more about our campaign to safeguard mental health in health insurance plans.
Learn more about our campaign to protect and expand Medicaid.
Promote early intervention
- Promote early intervention for serious mental illness through continued federal funding set aside in the Mental Health Block Grant to support research-based First Episode Psychosis programs
Improve integration of care
- Improve integration of health and mental health care through policies and financing that:
- Support the Collaborative Care Model, integrating behavioral health expertise into primary care
- Expand Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics that integrate primary care into behavioral health care clinics
Support caregivers, military service members & veterans
- Support our nation’s caregivers by extending existing national caregiver support programs to include family caregivers of people with mental illness
- Increase capacity for mental health care and promote continuity of care for military service members and veterans with mental health conditions
Learn more about our campaign to protect veterans’ access to mental health care.
End the criminalization of mental illness
- Reduce the high cost of jailing people with mental illness by investing in policies and funding to ensure that every community has:
- 24/7 behavioral health crisis response teams
- Subacute and respite care
- Assertive Community Treatment and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (ACT/FACT) teams
VICTORY!
Mental Health Reform passed the Senate by a vote of 94-5 in the 21st Century Cures bill.
Congress has approved a bill overhauling the development of medical treatments and cures that is likely to be one of the last pieces of legislation President Barack Obama will sign into law before he leaves office.
The Senate voted 94-5 on Wednesday to approve the bill, the 21st Century Cures Act, which will hasten how drugs and medical devices are reviewed and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The measure also provides funding for efforts like Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative and Vice President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot,” as well as money for Alzheimer’s research.
To contact your legislators:
- Contact your Representative in the Texas House
- Contact your Texas Senator
- Get more information about current legislation
- Texas Legislature Online
