ACA ADVOCACY UPDATE, Week of May 25th

From the States

▪ Bills passed in 6 states during the 2009 session (IA, VA, MD, AR, TX and MO).

▪Bills are still in play in 6 states (PA, WI, IL, MI, NY, NC).
ü MI: Referred to the Health Policy committee. Awaiting action. Legislature meets throughout the year.
ü IL Passed out of the House. Passed out of the Senate committee. The insurance lobby is pushing hard for caps. Legislature meets throughout the year.
ü PA: Referred to the Health and Human Services committee. Awaiting action. Legislature meets throughout the year.
ü WI: Introduced 4/27. Legislature meets throughout the year.
ü NY: Referred to the insurance committee. Trying to work with sponsor to coordinate a day in Albany to jump start the efforts. Legislature meets throughout the year.
ü NC: Still discussing including language in another bill. They adjourn in July.

▪ The sessions in adjourned in 6 states without passing parity into law (AL, CT, MN, NE, ND, UT).

ü AL: Never moved out of committee. The legislature adjourned May 15th.
ü CT: We worked to revise the language several times. Action was not taken before they adjourned.
ü MN: Introduced 5/11. The legislature has adjourned until Feb 4, 2010/
ü NE: Died in committee.
ü ND: Passed the Senate. Died in the House.
ü UT: Passed in the House. Died before being voted on in Senate.

▪ We are working to organize meetings and calls to pull together a plan of action in each of these states building towards re-introduction in 2010. We are also working on identifying and cultivating local coalition partners.

▪ We are working to get legislation introduced in 2010 in 7 states (AZ, OH, ID, NC, GA, KS, KY).

▪ The ME bill to remove the microprocessor exemption from the existing parity law was carried over for the 2010 special session. Morgan traveled to Augusta on May 26th to meet with local leaders and activists to start the planning process.

▪ Two bills are currently being studied (TN and WA).
ü TN: Tabled for study over the summer and debate in the 2010 session.
ü WA: A study bill was introduced. We are waiting for the analysis.

ON THE HILL --- Parity
▪ The House re-introduced the federal parity bill last week (HR 2575). Authored by Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), sponsors include Representatives George Miller (D-CA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Todd Platts (R-PA), Joe Sestak (D-PA), and Al Green (D-TX).

▪ We are meeting with targeted members of the Ways & Means, House Education & Labor and Energy & Commerce committees to secure additional co-sponsors and push for inclusion of assistive devices within healthcare reform.

▪ We are also reaching out to past sponsors to push for them to sign on to the 111th version.

▪ We are continuing our in-district push. We developed a kit and materials for the Memorial Recess.

▪ We are continuing to work with Senator Snowe’s office to get the bill introduced in the Senate. The ACA is in a meeting on Friday, May 29th with her staff.