{"id":228,"date":"2009-11-02T22:50:23","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T04:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/02\/new-health-care-bill-drafted-by-house-of-representatives-filled-with-psychopharma-industry-agenda\/"},"modified":"2024-07-14T05:43:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T10:43:11","slug":"new-health-care-bill-drafted-by-house-of-representatives-filled-with-psychopharma-industry-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/02\/new-health-care-bill-drafted-by-house-of-representatives-filled-with-psychopharma-industry-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"New Health Care Bill Drafted by House of Representatives Filled with Psycho\/Pharma Industry Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newly-forged 1990-page “Affordable Health Care for America Act<\/a>” (H.R.3962)\u00c2\u00a0drafted by the U.S. House of Representatives is filled with mental health provisions intended to prop up psychiatry as well as the pharmaceutical industry with billions in future income.<\/p>\n

Key mental health components of this House bill include:\u00c2\u00a0The Mothers Act, school based health clinics for mental health screening\/treatment of children, mental health parity (psycho\/pharma industry billing initiative) and more.<\/p>\n

The MOTHERS Act<\/strong>
\nThe bill includes the language of the MOTHERS Act, to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153expand treatment for postpartum conditions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and calls for the development of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153improved screening and diagnostic techniques,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but makes no provisions to ensure any entities doing such research are free from conflicts of interest or pharmaceutical funding.<\/p>\n

For example, Screening for Mental Health, Inc., and its sub-organization Signs of Suicide, who heavily promote and conduct mental health screening, received $4,985,925 from pharmaceutical companies prior to 2008, and ten leading psychiatric researchers<\/strong> have been exposed in the last year for failing to disclose millions of dollars in pharmaceutical payments.<\/p>\n

Yet this bill contains no provisions for full disclosure of conflicts of interest for any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153entity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that could receive federal taxpayer funded grants, do research or promotional campaigns \u00e2\u20ac\u201c such as the provision in the bill calling for a national PR campaign using TV, radio public and other public service announcements to urge women be screened and seek treatment for postpartum depression.<\/p>\n

The bill also calls for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clinical research\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for the development of new treatments (drugs), but again, no guidelines for ensuring that any researchers\/research entities are free from pharmaceutical funding or conflicts of interest. [Section 2529, Page 1418]<\/p>\n

Mental Health Parity<\/strong>
\nThe bill mandates Mental Health Parity, or equal insurance coverage for mental disorders as what are covered for physical diseases, whether under their regular health insurance or whether a person gets their new coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange.<\/p>\n

Psychiatric patients are traditionally \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cured\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when their insurance benefits run out.\u00c2\u00a0In this bill, those benefits never run out.\u00c2\u00a0Considering there are no medical tests to verify the existence of any psychiatric disorder, and without anything other than a psychiatrist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opinion about whether or not the person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153illness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cured,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d this legislation becomes nothing more than taxpayer funded billions to the psycho\/pharmaceutical industry who will continue their jihad of mass drugging of Americans.<\/p>\n

This provision could easily encompass all 374 diagnoses in psychiatry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diagnostic manual, covering everything from Phase of Life Problem<\/em> to Arithmetic Disorder<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 [Section 214, Page 100]<\/p>\n

Home Visitation Programs for Families with Young Children or Families Expecting Children<\/strong>
\nThe bill creates a home visitation program for families with young children or which are expecting children or who have certain \u00e2\u20ac\u0153risk factors.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0The program provides assessments regarding matters of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153age appropriate behaviors,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for children, prevention of family violence and referral to outside services.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0[Section 1904, Page 1177]<\/p>\n

School Based Health Clinics<\/strong>
\nThe bill includes funding for School Based Health Clinics that will include subjective psychiatric mental health screening (called mental health assessments) of children, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153referral to a continuum of services including emergency psychiatric care, community support programs, inpatient care, and outpatient programs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as part of their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153comprehensive primary health services.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0This is a direct feeder line for the psycho\/pharmaceutical industry directly into our schools.\u00c2\u00a0[Section 2511, Page 1352]<\/p>\n

Wellness Program Grants for Small Employers<\/strong>
\nThe grants in the bill serve as an incentive for employers to include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mental health\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as part of the Wellness Program Grants to businesses.\u00c2\u00a0Part of the program entails a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Behavioral Change Component\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that encourages \u00e2\u20ac\u0153healthy living through counseling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and may include programs relating to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tobacco use, obesity, stress management, depression and mental health.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0[Section 112, Page 67]<\/p>\n

Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers<\/strong>
\nThe bill creates new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in order for existing community mental health centers to qualify, they have to provide, among other things, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mental health screening, assessment, and diagnosis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153outpatient clinic mental health services, including screening, assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapy and medication,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in addition to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crisis mental health services including 24-hour mobile crisis teams.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0[Section 2513, Page 1367]<\/p>\n

WHAT YOU CAN DO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your voice needs to be heard in Washington on this outrageous bill. Call, fax, or email your Representative and tell them that you are opposed to the above points in the Health Care Reform bill.<\/p>\n

To find your Representative and get their contact information, go to http:\/\/www.congress.org\/congressorg\/directory\/congdir.tt<\/a> to look them up (you need to enter your zip code). You can also call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Health Care Act is filled with mental health provisions intended to prop up psychiatry as well as the pharmaceutical industry with billions in future income. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-muddy-river-newsletter","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NMpC-3G","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}