ACA Government Affairs Blog

Medicaid plays a key role in providing mental health care for millions of people, and the funding for that role is significantly reduced in the House healthcare reform bill. The Senate is now writing its own bill. State governments may end up deciding how much new money to contribute to make up for lost federal funds.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed a bill banning conversion therapy on minors Wednesday, the same day it was passed by the Senate. Connecticut becomes the eighth state to do so.

The House passed a healthcare reform bill that substitutes tax credits for insurance subsidies, removes the requirement for mental health coverage, and removes millions from the Medicaid rolls. The Senate will now write its own bill that will not be the same as the House's.

This afternoon the President signed the bill that funds the government through September 30. Money for mental health programs, money for fighting opioid abuse, and money for schools becomes available.

A former chief medical director at SAMHSA has been chosen to oversee the agency. She criticized its approach to severe mental illness after she left, and the Congressman who helped create the post overseeing the agency has criticized the nomination.

The Supreme Court upholds California's conversion therapy ban, which was challenged on religious freedom grounds and previously on free speech grounds. This protects bans in other states as well. Congress is considering a nationwide ban on conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice.

Bills in the House and Senate would ban conversion therapy as a fraudulent practice because sexual identity is not a treatable medical condition, or a medical condition at all. You can add your support.

Congress has until Friday to fund school counseling programs, drug and alcohol programs, the VA, and the rest of the government, or trigger a shutdown. How will the President's priorities affect the outcome?

New Mexico becomes the first state this year to pass bipartisan legislation that bans conversion therapy on minors.

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.