ACA News

House Begins to Consider a Bill to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act

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 ...

Senate Begins to Consider Mental Health Funding for FY2018

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.

Congressional Resolution Discontinues Policy of Preventing Some With Mental Illness From Obtaining Firearms

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

Iowa ACA Members Help Defeat Legislation That Would Harm Counseling Profession

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.

Prognosis for the Affordable Care Act

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

More States Considering Bans on Conversion Therapy

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

ACA Attends American Association of State Counseling Boards Conference

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.

New Law Creates More Opportunities for LPCs to Serve Veterans

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 ...

President Signs Landmark Mental Health Legislation

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

Federal Spending, Federal Programs on Hold Until Spring

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.

The Trump Transition and the Trump Administration Are Just Getting Underway

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

Elections & Consequences

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

What to Look for on Election Night

The end of a long campaign between two very different, historically unpopular candidates is at its end.

Senate Majority Up For Grabs

While most of the attention is focused on the Presidential race, control of the Senate is also up for grabs in November and may have a significant impact on the way Washington works for the next two years. The result of these Senate races would ...

Your Voice. Your Vote. Your Responsibility.

Once again we find ourselves in the middle of a presidential election. It is a time that really drives most of us to become unplugged from the digital world. Yet while many of us find the political process distasteful, we cannot let ourselves become ...