Starting this past Monday, June 10, several AAMFT Family TEAM members are meeting with their Members of Congress to advocate for MFTs in Medicare legislation, the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019 (H.R. 945/S. 286). These meetings will continue through next week. Please amplify their impact by asking your Members of Congress to support the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019!
TEAM members were flown from their home states to meet with Congressmembers on key congressional committees with jurisdiction over Medicare issues: the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee.
The MFTs in Medicare legislation was introduced in the House (H.R. 945) and the Senate (S. 286) on January 31, 2019, earlier in this Congressional session than the last. Already, for the Senate bill, there are 19 Senate cosponsors as of June 12, 2019, which surpasses the total number of cosponsors (17) who were on the prior version of this Senate bill in the last Congress (2017-2018). The House version of the bill currently stands at 43 cosponsors and growing. Four Representatives signed on since Monday, June 10! Help keep the momentum going by asking your Members of Congress to cosponsor H.R. 945/S. 286!
Emailing or calling your Senators and Representatives help to amplify the impact of the Family TEAM members in Washington, D.C. meeting with their Members of Congress in person. By having more constituents actively contacting congressional offices, it raises the profile of our issue. If you have a couple minutes to spare, call your legislators with these simple instructions in mind:
- Go to our Take Action pages and find your legislators under “Directory” and typing your address in.
- Click on your Representatives and Senators to find the phone number for their Capitol office. If you scroll down further on the page, it will tell you whether this Representative/Senator has cosponsored our bills yet.
- Call them! Since it’s a phone call, you’ll want to make your point quickly and concisely.
- You’ll be speaking to a legislative assistant. If you can, ask to speak to the legislative assistant responsible for health policy/mental health policy.
- Tell them your name and explain that you are a constituent.
- Then get right to the point: “I am calling to encourage Representative/Senator (name) to support the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019 (H.R. 945/S. 286)”
If you don’t have the extra minutes to spare for a phone call, please take action through this link. If you receive a response, or if you have any questions, please email us at [email protected].