The EDC Blog - Click here for latest updates CAPITOL HILL IS THE PLACE FOR
EATING DISORDER ADVOCACY IN
SEPTEMBER!
The Eating Disorders Coalition gained six new cosponsors for the FREED Act (Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act, H.R. 1193) since April's Lobby Day, bringing the current total number of cosponsors to nine! These include Representatives Dan Burton (IN), Joe Courtney (CT), Jo Ann Emerson (MO), James P. Moran (VA), Christopher H. Smith (NJ), Gerald E. "Gerry" Connolly (VA) , Diana DeGette (CO), Steven C. LaTourette (OH), and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL).
The EDC will host its second Lobby Day of 2009 in Washington, DC to build even further momentum around FREED - the first eating disorders legislation to comprehensively promote research, treatment, education, and prevention programs.
Click here for more information and to get involved!
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 1-2, 2009
EDC LOBBYS ON CAPITOL HILL
AND ADVOCATES FOR THE FREED ACT!
"Thank you for organizing such a great Lobby Day, I was really impressed by the number and caliber of people who took part. I am looking forward to getting even more involved with the EDC . . . I find the EDC so inspirational."
- Jocelyn, April 2009 Lobby Day participant
The EDC hosted its biggest ever Lobby Day on April 1st and 2nd in Washington, DC, attracting participants from different walks of life and all corners of the country. Teams comprised of new and experienced advocates dispersed on the hill to promote the FREED Act (Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders, HR 1193); a comprehensive piece of legislation that will promote research, treatment, education, and prevention of eating disorders. EDC advocates spent the day personally meeting with legislators and their staffers on both sides of the divide in their offices and in the halls of congress, raising consciousness and garnering integral support for this landmark bill!
Lobby Day 2009 culminated with a discussion of the FREED Act at the EDC Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill, attended by both EDC participants and congressional staffers. Speakers including Representative Patrick Kennedy, Jillian Croll, Ted Weltzin, Lisa Lilenfeld, and Johanna Kandel, discussed the importance of the FREED ACT legislation at this momentous point in the struggle against eating disorders. Transcripts of some of these speeches are available online by clicking here.
The EDC would like to thank Lobby Day participants and EDC supporters from around the country for making Lobby Day 2009 such a tremendous success! Yet, while much has been accomplished, there remains a great deal of work to do. For this reason, the EDC is already initiating plans for a return to Capitol Hill to reinforce out message next fall. Please check back with us on our website in the coming days and months to keep informed and get involved in our efforts!
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3, 2008
VICTORY IN PASSING MENTAL
HEALTH PARITY!
The EDC applauds Congress for their commitment to eliminating discrimination in health care coverage against people suffering
from mental disorders. After tireless negotiations between
differing House and Senate versions, both chambers came together to pass mental health parity this year. This bill requires group health plans that currently offer coverage for mental health and substance-use disorders to provide those benefits in the same manner as benefits provided to all other medical and surgical procedures covered under the plan. It also prohibits group health plans from imposing discriminatory annual/lifetime dollar limits, copays and deductibles, or day and visit limits unless similar limitations or requirements are imposed for other medical and surgical benefits.
“Everyday we get calls from parents whose kids are on the verge of death due to an eating disorder yet they cannot get their health insurance companies to pay for this life saving treatment. This law will change that,” says Jeanine Cogan, EDC Policy Director. The EDC was part of a broad based coalition of organizations actively advocating for the strongest mental health parity bill that could pass Congress this year. EDC President Kitty Westin was invited to testify before Congress to help make the case for a strong mental health parity bill and she spent many days in Washington DC lobbying with fellow advocates, including David Wellstone, son of the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who first introduced parity legislation in 1996. Kitty stated, “I am thrilled that we finally have a mental health parity bill that will close some of the loopholes in the earlier version. It was a long hard battle and we are proud that we played a key role in passing a bill that will help millions of people each year.”
There were two notable victories as a result of this advocacy. First, the parity bill extends coverage to out-of-network providers if that same coverage is available for physical illnesses. Therefore, if out-of-network benefits are extended to medical and surgical benefits under the plan, out-of-network benefits are extended to mental health and addictive disorders in a manner that is no more restrictive than the application of the terms and conditions with respect to the medical or surgical benefits as well.
Second, it ensures that stronger state parity laws already in existence remain intact. Whereas this parity law is similar to the one passed in 1996 in terms of the definition of mental illnesses, the EDC hoped to strengthen that definition by explicitly requiring all mental illnesses in the DSM to be covered. This was one of the provisions which did not survive negotiations. As a next step, the EDC will continue to advocate for provisions that require coverage for eating disorders treatment. As a compromise for conceding on the DSM, this bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide a report to Congress within three years of enactment of the bill on: Specific coverage rates for all mental health and substance use disorder conditions; Which diagnoses are most commonly covered or excluded; Whether implementation of the Act has affected trends in coverage or exclusion of mentalhealth and substance use disorder conditions; And the impact of covering or excluding specific diagnoses on participants’ and enrollees’ health, health care coverage and the cost of delivering care.
While plans will retain the right to manage the benefit as they see fit and determine the scope of coverage, they will have to provide to plan participants and employers the terms and conditions of the medical necessity criteria used by the plan upon request.
For More Information:
Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, and Action
David Jaffe, Executive Director manager@eatingdisorderscoalition.org
202-543-9570
The Eating Disorders Coalition Supports the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
The Eating Disorders Coalition strongly supports the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act which was signed into law by President Bush on May 21st, 2008. This act will bar health insurance companies from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility. It will also prevent employers from using genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.
Genetic testing offers great promise for the development and testing of new medicines and therapies for eating disorders as well as other diseases. EDC believes protecting citizens from discrimination before the technology is widespread is a wise and prudent idea.
Dr. Cynthia M Bulik, Vice-President of the Eating Disorders Coalition, recently said: “The last thing we want is the fear of genetic discrimination to be yet another barrier to health care. This bill frees people to get genetic testing that could save their lives without the fear that such information would be used against them.”
EDC Brings Citizen Lobbyists to Capitol Hill
Click here to read about EDC's successful 2008 Lobby Days with Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN) and Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008.
Support Fairness with the EDC
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