In its first major effort to improve assistance for Americans with mental illness, the House passed legislation Wednesday afternoon aiming to reform the country’s patchwork of mental health programs.
Approved 422 to 2, the bill had been toned down from the original version championed by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa.., to garner support from Democrats. Instead of a sweeping overhaul, the measure makes incremental changes to how 112 government agencies coordinate with each other, compensate providers and make care available to those suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and other illnesses.
Its provisions include making some changes to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – requiring its director to have a clinical background and changing the way it reviews grants — and calling for studies and reviews that could lead to future reforms in the way mental healthcare is delivered and patients are treated.
Murphy, a Pittsburgh clinical psychologist who introduced the bill’s first version at the end of 2013 and has persistently worked since then to get it to the House floor, said his measure is addressing a mental healthcare system he calls “a failure.”
“We’re here finally to speak up for the last, the lost, the least and the lonely — that is, those who suffer from mental illness that is untreated,” he said.
Democrats supported the measure but urged that money be allocated later on to help the agencies carry out some of the highest-priority reforms. “This bill is a positive step, but it is only a first step,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. “It should include dedicating robust resources.”
The measure as is wouldn’t increase federal spending and would reduce Medicaid spending by $5 million over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office said in a score released this week.
The White House wouldn’t say whether President Obama supports the bill but instead broadly applauded the bipartisan effort. “We welcome bipartisan efforts to make progress toward ensuring that Americans can get the treatment they need,” said spokeswoman Katie Hill.
But the measure has been endorsed by most of the leading mental health groups, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Treatment Advocacy Center, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.
Murphy originally had tried to change patient privacy laws to allow family members to more easily get medical records for those with serious mental illness. But after objections by some patient advocate groups, the bill now directs the Department of Health and Human Services to make the change through the rule-making process to allow for public input.
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers have championed a different version of mental health reform in the Senate, which the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed in May. But it’s not clear when the full Senate might vote on the bill from Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.
