On Thursday, June 12, 2003 Sen. John Kerry will offer a Medicare outpatient mental health parity amendment in the Finance Committee markup of the Medicare drug bill. The text will be the same as S. 853, the Snowe-Kerry bill that most MHLG members supported in a recent letter. (See Mental Health Copayment Equity Act of 2003 Endorsement letters).

DC representatives of supporting organizations -- and as many constituents as possible in the short term -- need to call the offices of Senators on the Finance Committee and urge support for the Kerry amendment. Names and phone numbers are listed below. This may be our only chance in this Congress to get some improvement of the discriminatory mental health benefit in Medicare.

Message: “I’m calling to urge the Senator to support the Kerry mental health parity amendment in the Finance markup of Medicare. This will be an important step to easing the high out of pocket cost of using outpatient mental health benefits in Medicare.”

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