March 5, 2008


TO: Board of Trustees
Assembly
Council on Advocacy and Public Policy & Committees
PAC Board
APA Grass Roots Network

FR: Nick Meyers, Director of Government Relations
Clare Koller, Deputy Director
Jason Pray, Deputy Director

RE: House Passes H.R. 1424, Mental Health Parity


It is with great pleasure that we report that only minutes ago, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1424, the Kennedy-Ramstad mental health parity bill, by a solidly bipartisan tally of 268-148. Forty-seven Republicans joined 221 Democrats in voting to pass the bill; 3 Democrats and 145 Republicans voted against passage.

Earlier this evening, the House rejected a motion to recommit H.R. 1424 by a vote of 196-221. This was a procedural motion that effectively sought to force the House leadership to pass the Senate bill instead of the House bill. While 15 Democrats voted for the motion to recommit, 12 Republicans – a surprising number – voted against it.

We will provide a more detailed update as time permits. Debate ran on for several hours, fueled by bitter and distorted attacks, focused particularly against the House benefit standard of DSM-IV. Your DGR and PAC staff worked diligently with Dr. Robinowitz to rebut the “misstatements” about DSM, and to shore up support among the House Blue Dogs and House GOP cosponsors of the parity bill. This was truly a team effort.

This was an historic vote, marking the first time that the House of Representatives has voted to approve a free-standing mental health/substance-related disorder parity bill. There is still much work to be done if the House and Senate are to agree on a compromise bill in the weeks ahead. For now, however, I hope we will all take heart by the fact that the national legislature is a giant step closer to ending discriminatory coverage of treatment of mental illness.

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