Help reinstate mental health budget cuts
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Posted: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:00 am
|
Updated: 6:23 am, Tue May 24, 2011.
Help reinstate mental health budget cuts
The article “State pension fund payment slashed” on Page 5 of
the May 19 Lodi News-Sentinel did not state how much of the CalPERS
5 percent $170 million reduction, from $3.7 billion to $3.5 billion
in annual taxpayer contributions, was achieved through union
negotiations and how much from market gains.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Advocate magazine’s
spring 2011 publication revealed that California had the highest
dollar amount in mental health budget cuts in the nation at $587.4
million, above No. 2 — New York — at $132 million, and Illinois —
No. 3 — at $113.7 million, and this after several consecutive years
of substantial mental health cuts. Medi-Cal had previously removed
dental and optical benefits and requires a pharmacy co-pay from
folks who usually live on less than $700 per month, as most
diagnoses of serious mental illness occur between the ages of 18 to
25.
Gov. Jerry Brown has made deep cuts to mandated disability
programs to force people to vote for a 5-year extension of
temporary taxes. What a despicable game he plays! Many small
businesses have been and are in jeopardy, and more are leaving
California. Continuing taxes on top of inflationary price increases
will leave less disposable income, without which businesses cannot
flourish and the economy cannot recover.
Please join us in contacting your state representatives,
Assemblywoman Alyson Huber and State Sen. Tom Berryhill, to make
sure that there are sufficient pension reforms to reinstate the
$587.4 million mental health budget cut, and to provide Medi-Cal
minimal dental and optical benefits for the disabled so they can
retain enough teeth to eat a proper diet and can get glasses to see
when their eyes are failing.
Your action will be most appropriate as the San Joaquin County
Board of Supervisors will proclaim “May is Mental Health Month” at
today’s meeting, and, at the same time, you will also provide the
necessary support to the most vulnerable in our society.
Gertie and Tasso Kandris
San Joaquin County Mental Health Board Members
Family Members of National
Alliance on Mental Illness
Posted in
Letters
on
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:00 am.
Updated: 6:23 am.
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Darrell Baumbach posted at 5:33 am on Fri, May 27, 2011.
Thank you George Washington for undoing the pristine country which was un-United States free from pollution and man made things. Because of this, people have developed stress and many mental illnesses. You are to blame for it all.
Doug Chaney posted at 10:21 pm on Wed, May 25, 2011.
Thank you, Ronald Raygun, for the undoing of the mental health programs that kept many of the homeless and mentally challenged provided for and functional rather than homeless, imprisoned or dead in today's society.
Darrell Baumbach posted at 6:17 am on Tue, May 24, 2011.
The thirst for the tax payers blood is alive and well. Mental health treatment obviously is very important. Even though it is a good thing, it is an expensive thing. Our country is competing internationally for jobs and business. This is just but one more dramatic overwhelming expense that our competitors do not have that we do.
China and India businesses do not have to pay for mental health, disability, social security or many other mandated benefits. They can produce products and services much less expensive making it difficult for us to compete with them. All these things we do are wonderful... but can we pay for it. Below are just but 2 of many items that this problem even worse...
01.In November 2004, voters in the U.S. state of California passed Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which has been designed to expand and transform California’s county mental health service systems by increasing the taxes of high income individuals. The MHSA will be funded by imposing an additional one percent tax on individual, but not corporate, taxable income in excess of one million dollars.
02.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Obama Administration Issues Rules Requiring Parity in Treatment of Mental, Substance Use Disorders ...Paul Wellstone, Pete Domenici Parity Act Prohibits Discrimination...The new rules prohibit group health insurance plans—typically offered by employers—from restricting access to care by limiting benefits and requiring higher patient costs than those that apply to general medical or surgical benefits. The rules implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA).
MHPAEA greatly expands on an earlier law, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 which required parity only in aggregate lifetime and annual dollar limits between the categories of benefits and did not extend to substance use disorder benefits