New voices on the national political scene are unifying and strengthening our positions with other organizations on key issues including privacy, parity, and the provision of quality mental health care.
As mandated by the Executive Council following the failed National Health Care legislation, the Committee on Government Relations and Insurance (CGRI) retained Marina Weiss, director of public policy and government relations for the Washington firm of Powers, Pyles, Sutter, and Verville.
Highly regarded by the Washington political establishment, Weiss has a master's degree in political science from the University of Texas, a Ph.D. from Texas A & M University, and extensive experience working for former Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Our organization, with its limited yet potent membership, now has a legislative consultant and strategist, giving us immense access to policy makers, legislators, and government agencies.
The powerful Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG) has already placed Weiss on its steering committee. Over fifty organizations belong to the MHLG, including all major mental-health care provider and consumer groups. This strategic position markedly enhances The American's capacity to influence legislative and bureaucratic initiatives that affect our profession.
Samuel Rubin, president of the Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR), and Arthur Farley, chair of the CGRI, have been in close collaboration since they began working toward these goals in December 1995, as agreed on by CGRI and CPR at the spring 1994 Executive Council meeting.
Weiss and her colleague James C. Pyles have participated in several conference calls with Farley and Rubin, who are impressed with these lobbyists' grasp of The American's legislative priorities: to protect private contracting and confidentiality and to work for parity insurance coverage for mental illnesses. The CGRI/CPR work has benefited from The American's policy debates on these confidentiality and parity matters, and as we unite in a truly collaborative mode, Weiss and Pyles are developing strategies with provider groups such as The American Psychiatric Association, The American Medical Association, the American Association of Retired People, and MHLG.
Two legislative matters have warranted most of our attention. First, Senate Bill 1028 (the Health Insurance Reform Act)—which would improve portability of health insurance and prohibit insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting health conditions—was voted for unanimously. The Senate also voted overwhelmingly (68 to 30) to approve a “parity” amendment sponsored by Sens. Domenici (R-NM) and Wellstone (D-MN). This bill was passed without an administrative simplification amendment that would have seriously undermined confidentiality protection. It is of major significance that mental health parity is part of this bill.
However, even though this is an important breakthrough, the chances that the House/Senate conferees will pass a bill including parity are slim. Our committee has been heartened by the work of many analysts of The American who responded to our requests to communicate their concerns to legislators in support of parity, and in opposition to administrative simplification and the threat it would pose to patient confidentiality. We are now concerned about the bill's punitive aspects aimed at physicians and providers.
The other significant legislation involves confidentiality—the Bennett Bill. We adopted a tactical approach to participate in the process that augments and assures the protection of confidentiality and does not circumvent the patient consent process. If this effort fails, we will mount an all-out campaign to scuttle the bill. As politics would have it, the Bennett Bill was caught up in a “pincer” attack from staunch initial supporters and detractors, thus leaving it in limbo.
We believe that a proactive approach for legislation protecting confidentiality is our most constructive tactic. Continuing support and participation from all of us is essential to advance these principles and to protect our patients and their access to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
We will continue to participate more actively and effectively as lobbyists because of our unified CGRI/CPR approach, the coalition-building strategy, the policymaking function of the Executive Council, and the supportive initiatives of the Executive Committee and, most of all, our members.
Together we can protect the vital interest of our patients and ourselves.
Arthur Farley is chair of the Committee on Government Relations and Insurance. Samuel Rubin is president of the Coalition for Patient Rights.