URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL U.S. AED MEMBERS,

The AED Advocacy Committee urges you to take a few minutes to call your U.S. Senators and member of Congress on Friday, December 7th and ask him/her to help pass the mental health parity bill this session.  See the Action Alert below from the Eating Disorders Coalition for instructions. We need your voice to make parity a reality and to improve access to care for millions of Americans who suffer from eating disorders, addictions and mental illness.

Thank you, AED Advocacy Committee

Take 3 Minutes to Tell Congress You Want a Vote on Parity Now!

Action: On Friday, December 7, use the toll-free Parity Hotline,

1-866-parity4 (1-866-727-4894), to call your representative and senators and leave a message urging their active support for the mental health and addiction parity legislation.  (The Parity Hotline reaches the U.S. Capitol switchboard, which can connect callers to the offices of their members.)

Targets: All members of the House and Senate.

Message: "I am calling to ask the senator/representative to not let another year go by without passing mental health and addiction parity legislation.

Please work with the Leadership to pass parity now."

Status of Parity: S. 558, a compromise negotiated over the previous two years, passed the Senate under unanimous consent on September 18.  H.R.

1424, approved by three House committees, will next go to the Rules Committee and the House Floor.  We hope that the negotiations that are now underway between the House and Senate are successful in devising one compromise bill that can pass in both the Senate and House.  The leadership of the Eating Disorders Coalition believes that the bill that moves forward at this stage be acceptable to both the House and the Senate.

This session of Congress will end around December 21.  If parity is not passed by then the issue will lapse over into 2008, when many expect it will be lost in an election year deadlock.  With one massive grassroots telephone call-in day we hope to impress Congress with a united front that says the parity issue must not be set aside again.

Resources from the Congressional Budget Office:

CBO score on H.R. 1424 (Commerce), 11-21-07:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8837/hr1424e&c.pdf

CBO score on H.R. 1424 (Ways & Means), 10-4-07:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/86xx/doc8679/hr1424w&m.pdf

CBO score on H.R. 1424 (Ed & Labor) 9-7-07:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/86xx/doc8608/hr1424.pdf

CBO score on S. 558, 3-20-07:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/78xx/doc7894/s558.pdf

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