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Become a voice and an advocate for
your mental health !

Consumer Council
Consumer: a person who uses goods or services.

To learn more about the Consumer Council of
NAMI Dane County
Contact: Ava Martinez at
NAMI Dane County
(608) 249-7188If you would like to join us,
see our brochure for more information. (.pdf)

NAMI Dane County - is a support, education, and advocacy group dedicated to the
improvement of the quality of life of people whose lives are affected by mental illness.
- The NAMI Dane County Consumer Council is made up of people who have or have had a mental illness. We are totally RECOVERY FOCUSED. We act as an advisory group to the Board of Directors and are to be used for the consumer to have equal participation in al of NAMI committees, boards, employment, policy, education and advocacy of NAMI for the community and general public. The purpose of the Consumer Council is to advance the activities and involvement of the mental health consumer. It is our goal to empower and educate consumers around issues such as care, treatment, services and consumer rights.

Hope you are all finding time to enjoy these glorious Wisconsin summer days.
My warmest regards,
Barbara Lawton
Lieutenant Governor

Congratulations! Working with us, you and thousands of advocates helped persuade Congress to end discriminatory mental-health policy in Medicare by phasing out a 50% copay requirement on outpatient mental health treatment. While we won the battle for Medicare parity this week, Congress must still pass final legislation to establish parity in employer-provided insurance. Senate and House negotiators having bridged key differences on the requirements for mental health parity in employer-provided insurance. This compromise between S. 558 and H.R. 1424 would very substantially improve current law by requiring parity on any treatment limitations and financial requirements; requiring health plans to provide out-of-network mental health and addiction benefits at parity if the plan offers out-of-network medical or surgical benefits; requiring disclosure on medical necessity criteria; and preserving stronger state parity and consumer protection laws.

But final parity legislation must be brought to a vote, and must include provisions to offset costs Congress projects would result.
Time is short! It’s critical you email your senators and representative the message:
“Congress must complete its work on parity now!” ( find your Senator ! )

Parity Bill - (SB 375) was co-sponsored by Senator Dave Hansen and Representative Sheryl Albers. Rep. Albers released the bill for co-sponsorship in the Assembly (LRB 3794/2). She explains that the next challenge lies in ensuring that Mental Health Parity receives a committee hearing in the Assembly so it may move to the floor for a vote. You can help make that happen by calling or writing to
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (contact information below) to ask him to assign the bill to the Public Health Committee, chaired by Representative “Doc” Hines, who promises to give it a hearing.

The NAMI Dane County CONSUMER COUNCIL invites all members to communicate with the Speaker, to remind him of a leader’s responsibility
to give all our representatives a chance to weigh in on Mental Health Parity (SB 375 or Assembly LRB 3794/2).

Contact Information:
Speaker Mike Huebsch
P.O. Box 8952
Madison, WI 53708
Rep.Huebsch@legis.state.wi.us
888-534-0094 / 608-266-2401

Dear friends, mental health parity advocates all:
Here is a quick status report on Federal Mental Health Parity legislation: nearly a year has passed since the U.S. Senate passed its mental health parity bill, which was followed by the House passing theirs in January. In July, reports surfaced that a compromise bill was close to completion. At month's end, compromise parity legislation language was written into a much larger package of so-called tax extenders, which are various tax provisions due to expire that must be extended in law. Unfortunately, the tax-extender bill did not come to a vote last week and is on hold until Congress reconvenes in September. *
8/21/08	Hope you are all finding time to enjoy these glorious Wisconsin summer days. My warmest regards, Barbara Lawton Lieutenant Governor

Become a voice and an advocate for your mental health !		Dane County	Consumer Council Consumer: a person who uses goods or services.
To learn more about the Consumer Council of NAMI Dane County Contact: Ava Martinez at NAMI Dane County (608) 249-7188If you would like to join us, see our brochure for more information. (.pdf)	NAMI Dane County - is a support, education, and advocacy group dedicated to the improvement of the quality of life of people whose lives are affected by mental illness. - The NAMI Dane County Consumer Council is made up of people who have or have had a mental illness. We are totally RECOVERY FOCUSED. We act as an advisory group to the Board of Directors and are to be used for the consumer to have equal participation in al of NAMI committees, boards, employment, policy, education and advocacy of NAMI for the community and general public. The purpose of the Consumer Council is to advance the activities and involvement of the mental health consumer. It is our goal to empower and educate consumers around issues such as care, treatment, services and consumer rights.