SCHIP Reauthorization Bill Becomes Law

The Democratic-controlled Congress handed President Barack Obama an early health care victoryas the Senate passed a long-awaited reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The bill was passed by the Senate on January 30, 2009 by a vote of 66 to 32, largely along party lines.

The House, on February 4, 2009, passed the Senate SCHIP bill by a vote of 290 to 135 and sent it to the President for his signature. President Obama signed the legislation into law later that afternoon – his second major piece of legislation since becoming president – calling the bill a down payment on health care reform. During his campaign for president, Obama called for requiring all children to have health coverage.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance and currently covers approximately 7 million children at a cost of $25 billion.  The legislation, which extends the program through 2013, authorizes an additional $32.8 billion, allowing SCHIP to cover 4 million more children for a total of 11 million children that would not otherwise have access to health insurance.

It pays for expanding SCHIP by increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes from 39 cents a pack to $1 a pack. Even with the added spending, an estimated 5 million children still will be without health insurance.

Of importance to ACA and AMHCA members, the bill prohibits SCHIP plans from setting lower treatment limitations or higher financial requirements on coverage of mental health or substance use services than they set for other health services. This provision clarifies that the mental health and substance abuse parity law passed by Congress last year fully applies to SCHIP. The parity requirement is critical because, although low-income children have high rates of mental health conditions, only about 40 percent of states offer full coverage of necessary services for children with complex mental health needs.

Slowly Pushing the VA Towards Implementation

Two years ago, President Bush signed PL 109-461 into law, enacting a provision that allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to hire professional counselors.  Unfortunately, the VA has very little to show for two years of implementation work.  While we expected a lengthy process, we believe that the progress is too slow to be acceptable any longer.

The ACA and AMHCA are collaborating with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (CAMFT) to put pressure on the VA to speed up its implementation.

Our coalition was able to gain the support of Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee.  On Thursday, Chairman Filner sent a letter to the VA Secretary, General Eric Shinseki, asking that the VA accelerate its implementation efforts.  We will be asking the Senate VA Committee and several consumer groups to send similar letters this month.

We hope that these letters, which should be on Secretary Shinseki’s desk by the end of February, will encourage the VA to complete its implementation and being hiring professional counselors to help alleviate current staff shortages.

The ACA and AMHCA would like to extend a special thanks to Congressman Filner and his staff for their vigilant work in pushing for inclusion of counselors in the VA.

Peter Atlee
Legislative Representative
American Counseling Association
ph  703-823-9800 x242 | 800-347-6647 x242
www.counseling.org