As Debate Over Medicaid Cuts Begins, APA Wants Members’ Voices Heard

Later this month, Congress will begin debating a budget reconciliation bill that could propose sweeping funding cuts to health-related programs such as Medicaid. The House of Representatives’ proposed budget includes a directive for the House Energy and Commerce Committee—which oversees Medicare and Medicaid—to reduce spending by $880 billion over the next 10 years as part of goal of $2 trillion in gross deficit reductions.

(The Senate budget requires only $4 billion in gross deficit reductions and allows a $5.8 trillion net deficit increase.)

“We need all hands-on deck to let elected officials know about how devastating these cuts will be to patients,” APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.MedSc., and APA CEO and Medical Director Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A., said in a letter to APA membership.

Viswanathan and Wills noted that Medicaid is the single-largest payer for behavioral health services in the United States, the second-largest payer for pediatric care, and a critical source of health insurance for individuals in rural communities.

To help members and other mental health professionals get their voices heard, APA has created a Medicaid Advocacy Toolkit with resources on Medicaid and the budget reconciliation process, tips on how to meet with legislators, and links to other ways to get involved in policy. APA has also initiated a social media campaign—#VoicesForMedicaid—to amplify the message.

For more information about APA’s advocacy efforts and how you can lend your voice, visit APA’s Advocacy Action Center.

(Image: Getty Images/iStock/eric1513)

---

Don't miss out! To learn about newly posted articles in Psychiatric News, please sign up here.

Follow Psychiatric News on X, LinkedIn and Instagram!

Sequestration Looms With Consequences for Mental Health

Unless Congress and the White House agree on a package of revenue increases and spending reductions by March 1, sequestration—automatic across-the-board spending cuts—will be imposed that can have a dramatic impact on APA members and their patients. In a memorandum to the APA leadership yesterday, APA Director of Government Relations Nicholas Meyers said at present action to avert the sequestration appears remote.

Meyers noted that the Obama administration has said cuts to the Mental Health Block Grant would mean that some 373,000 seriously mentally ill adults and children will not receive needed mental health services. Among other consequences, NIH research would face project cancellations and thousands of potential layoffs, and the FDA would face delays in new drug approvals. And Medicare—including payments to physicians—faces a 2 percent across-the-board reduction.

APA president Dilip Jeste, M,D., told Psychiatric News that he is “very concerned that the sequestration will have a damaging impact on the care of seriously mentally ill patients, who already lack adequate access to needed services." The proposed cuts in Medicare and NIH funding would also adversely affect clinicians and researchers across the country, Jeste said. “I still hope that this cascade of unfortunate events can be avoided by prudent action on the part of Congress and the administration."

Members who want to review the likely impact on their home state can click here. Members who have not already done so should use the link here to access the Action Alert page and select the sequestration alert. (You may need your member ID to access the Alert.)

(Image: Elena Yakusheva/shutterstock.com)