The three House committees with jurisdiction over health care—the House Ways & Means Committee, the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and the House Education & Labor Committee—have released draft health care reform legislation, including provisions to update the Medicare program.
Importantly, the draft legislation (known as the “Tri-Committee” draft) would establish Medicare coverage of licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists. The legislation makes significant changes to the way the current health insurance marketplace works in the U.S., with the goal of building on our current system to broaden coverage and constrain health care cost increases. Information on the legislation, including the bill text and a summary, is available on the House Education & Labor Committee’s website at http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/06/health-care-reform-house-dems.shtml
Gaining Medicare coverage of counselors has been a long-standing goal of ACA, and we strongly support the inclusion of counselor coverage within the Medicare section of the Tri-Committee draft bill. ACA President Lynn Linde recently wrote a letter to the leaders and members of the three committees urging support for the legislation.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee and House Ways & Means Committee are expected to mark-up the legislation the week of July 13th. ACA members are encourage to contact their members of Congress to urge support for the Tri-Committee legislation, and for coverage of counselors under Medicare.
For more information, contact Scott Barstow with ACA at 800-347-6647 x234, or by e-mail at sbarstow@counseling.org.