The SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services has several resources available concerning mental health parity.

Resources can be found at: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ManagedCare/Parity/default.asp

From the White House website:

On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes -- government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. President Obama and Vice President Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors, and plans. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year. If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Details can be found here.

On 11/12/2008, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released "Call to Action" a plan for health reform in 2009.

From a press release on the Baucus plan for health reform:

The Baucus “white paper” details specific policy options for consideration by the 111th Congress. The main objectives of the Baucus plan are to achieve universal coverage, reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care our system provides. Baucus’s vision for achieving these objectives includes an individual responsibility to hold health insurance – once quality, affordable care is accessible to all. His plan seeks to reach that point through measures to shore up the employer-based system, through a one-stop insurance marketplace for individuals and businesses, and through limited expansions of public programs. The plan also includes a number of insurance reforms to make the market work better for American health care consumers, and delivery system reforms that emphasize better quality, primary care for more patients, and a stronger focus on preventive care. Baucus also suggests potential savings and efficiencies that can be found in a remade health care system to reduce the cost of reform.

Text of the whitepaper: Call to Action

Call to Action Website

Governors at the National Governors’ Association meeting have called for an increase in Medicaid funds through an increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) i.e, the “federal match.” The FMAP helps determine the funds distributed to the state for Medicaid services. Previous House and Senate bills related to an increase are currently stuck in committee, but the Governors believe that president-elect Obama will likely include some form of increase for Medicaid in future stimulus legislation.

More information on the requests by the governors is available on http://www.nga.org

A new rule implementing the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act  allows states to impose premiums and higher co-payments for hospital care, prescriptions, and doctors’ services for those over the Federal Poverty Limit (those on TANF and SSI are exempt from the changes). The rule allows a sliding scale based on income requirements (up to a total of 5 percent of a family's income). It also allows for states to deny services to those who don’t pay the required premiums and co-payments. This may generate over a billion dollars in new revenue, though some worry that low-income individuals may forgo or delay services due to increased costs.

The rule is available at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/

The National Association of State Alcohol/Drug Abuse Directors recently released “An Inventory of Cost Offset Studies for State Substance Abuse Agencies.” The inventory discusses the different components of cost offsets as well as methods for conducting and states where the studies have been done. Several of the studies present very good “business cases” for substance abuse treatment, showing billions of dollars in cost savings and other indirect benefits.

The inventory is available at: http://nasadad.org/resource.php?base_id=1564