ACA Government Affairs Blog

ACA hosted a briefing for Capitol Hill staff on the opioid crisis and how counselors can be involved in the response. The event is available on video.

The White House and Congress must decide whether to proactively weaken the Affordable Care Act or whether to prop it up because deadlines are looming on a court case, a spending bill, and for insurance companies to remain in the program.

The House bill to repeal and replace Obamacare could not attract enough votes to pass. Its future viability, and the mental health benefits it provides, are up to the insurance companies and the Administration.

A House Committee considering the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act discusses the requirement for mental health care coverage going forward. It will be up to the States to decide.

The Supreme Court returned a case involving transgender students and school bathrooms back to the Fourth Circuit Court after the new Administration withdrew guidance on the subject provided by the Obama Administration. The guidance from the new Administration says it is a matter best left to the States and school districts. School counselors will have to wait for the issue to be resolved.

The House bill ends subsidies for low income people to buy insurance in the ACA market, and cuts Medicaid funding. It replaces those with tax credits for low and some middle income people that seem unlikely to be as generous on average. Many members of Congress oppose the bill for that reason. Some oppose it because it is still too generous.

The subcommittee that funds mental health programs heard testimony on a range of issues as it prepares to write the spending bill for next year.

Social Security recipients who required a designated payee due to mental impairment were being added to the national background check system.

The proposed bill would have eliminated the licensure process for a number of professions including counseling, instead requiring anyone who wanted to be considered a counselor to simply register with the State Department of Public Health.

As Congress begins to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, it finds that one of those is easier than the other.

Since our last post, bills prohibiting conversion therapy have been filed in two more state legislatures: Idaho and Hawaii. Five states and the District of Columbia already have laws prohibiting conversion therapy.

Five states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting conversion therapy. Five more are considering similar bills introduced this month.

The American Counseling Association has joined with more than 100 mayors and other partners in the Cities Thrive Coalition in urging leaders in Congress to “build upon, not tear down, the progress that has been made to our behavioral health system through the Affordable Care Act.”

Licensing reform, board consolidation, codes of ethics, and portability are some of the issues being discussed by licensing board members and other stakeholders in the profession.

President Obama and the 114th Congress gave the counseling profession a small gift before wrapping up their legislative business before the holiday season and the end of the year. On December 16, 2016, the President signed H.R. 6416, the “Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2016.”

By signing the 21st Century Cures Act, President Obama approved the first major mental health legislation in nearly a decade.

Congress has adjourned for the year. The 115th Congress will convene on January 3rd. Republicans will still control the majorities in both parties, although with slightly smaller margins.

Last month, bills were introduced in the Ohio House and Senate that would radically change the state licensure board structure, ultimately impacting counselors and others.

In the three weeks since the election many things have changed in Washington, but as a practical matter nothing has changed just yet.

There is an enormous amount to digest from the elections and very little to go on yet in terms of specifics.