Res. No. 1777

Resolution calling upon the United States Congress to pass and the President to sign legislation allowing licensed mental health service providers and licensed family therapists to be reimbursed through Medicaid and Health Care Marketplace plans for provision of counseling and therapy services.

By Council Member Cabrera

                     Whereas, According to Medicaid.gov., the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) requires Medicaid and other programs to comply with mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements; and

                     Whereas, MHPAEA makes it easier for Americans with mental health and substance use disorders to get the care they need by prohibiting certain discriminatory practices that limit coverage for behavioral mental health treatment and services; and

                     Whereas, The National Alliance on Mental Illness contends that Medicaid is a public health insurance program that is jointly funded by the states and the federal government, and that investment in adequate community-based health and mental health services can also prevent tragedies such as school failure, incarceration, homelessness and unnecessary loss of life; and

                     Whereas, As President Donald Trump works to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with the support  of Congress, people with addiction and mental health disorders and their families wonder how now-covered-persons would be impacted without insurance coverage; and

Whereas, USA Today reports that “the people helped most by the ACA are the very ones most likely to suffer from poor mental health and addiction”; and

                     Whereas, The National Council on Behavioral Health asserts that federal law requires insurers to cover mental health and addiction at the same level they do for other diseases would be “useless” if there is no insurance coverage for low income patients; and

                     Whereas, Executive management at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx has expressed numerous mental health programs are contingent upon patients getting early treatment in primary care, which would fail to occur under a repeal of the ACA; and

                     Whereas, Modern Healthcare magazine reported that “low-income patients often take longer to treat because they have other issues that must be addressed, including poor housing, transportation and nutrition and that it often falls to mental health professionals to deal with these issues”; and

                     Whereas, The National Council for Behavioral Health has opined in a statement on the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Bill, the latest iteration of healthcare reform, that “this bill may go by a different name than previous efforts to reshape the health care system, but it maintains- and even worsens-the devastating provisions from those bills that led to a massive constituent outcry earlier this summer”; and

                     Whereas, An article in The Nation magazine reports that “The GOP’s Health-Care Plan Could Strip Addiction and Mental-Health Coverage from 1.3 Million,” and that “[c]ontrary to Trump’s talk, his party is aiming to pull the rug out from under people grappling with substance-abuse or mental health issues”; and

                     Whereas, Referring to the dismantling of The Affordable Care Act, the Harm Reduction Coalition has issued a statement that “[p]eople with substance-abuse disorders are going to be the first casualty if this moves forward”; now, therefore, be it

Resolved that the Council of the City of New York calls upon the United States Congress to pass and the President to sign legislation allowing licensed mental health service providers and licensed family therapists to be reimbursed through Medicaid and Health Care Marketplace plans for provision of counseling and therapy services.

LS#10771
MB
9/26/17