ACA ADVOCACY UPDATE, Week of May 4th

From the States
▪ The Maryland bill was signed into law by Gov. O’Malley on Thursday.

▪ Texas and Virginia are still awaiting the Governor's signature.

▪ The Pennsylvania parity bill was referred to the Health & Human Services Committee. We are waiting for a hearing to be scheduled.

▪ Bills are still in play in WI, CT, MO and IL.

The Wisconsin bill was introduced on April 27th.

Illinois passed favorably out of the Senate committee. This was seen as the biggest hurdle because several of the members of the committee expressed concerns with the legislation. The next step is the Senate floor.

Connecticut has been an up hill battle every step of the way. The first version had a cap. We got it removed. Then, we had a bill with a microprocessor exemption. Thanks in part to all of the calls and emails made by our activists and strong, consistent direct lobbying that has been removed. The current version will allow for access to microprocessor devices as long at they are determined to be medically necessary. We are of course working to ensure that the prosthetist and/or physician be the one(s) to determine medical necessity, not the insurance companies. The twist is that current version only provides coverage for children under 18. We have been working with the sponsor and other allies to push for a full vote on a comprehensive bill. Our activists in CT, including all of Hanger’s clinics have been very actively pushing at the grassroots level. We may not win, but we will have a voting record. We have to think of this in terms of a long-term strategy.

Though the Missouri bill passed out of both the House and Senate committees, it is not going to receive a floor vote as a stand alone bill. They are working to get it passed as an amendment to another vehicle. It has been attached to a few different bills. It is now a bit of a waiting game, though they are continuing to work behind the scenes to pass one of the bills with the parity amendment. We have been coordinating with our intern and activists to get calls and emails into offices in a final push. They adjourn next week, so this is it!

▪ The TN, AL, NE, NY, ME, ND, and MI bills appear to be stuck. We will work with our activists there to strengthen our efforts for 2010. Many of these states will also be targets for our summer organizing meetings.

The Tennessee bill has been referred for a cost study. This is similar to what transpired in several others states (NE, MD, NJ, VA, etc). It will be considered next year after the study has been completed.

No recent action in AL, NE, NY and MI. Many of these states will be targeted for our summer organizing meetings in order to build and enhance our efforts for the 2010 session.

ME will come up in the special session. We have scheduled a meeting for May 26th with local leaders to coordinate our activities. This week, we confirmed several participants to join the core group working on this initiative.

▪ Four states are still working to introduce a bill this year (OH, ID, NC and MN).

In Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio bill language has been finalized. They have sponsors confirmed for next year. They may have the opportunity to introduce it this year.

▪ Two sessions already adjourned for the year without passing legislation (UT and ND).

ON THE HILL --- Parity
▪ Currently, our lead House folks are working to confirm our sponsors from the past, particularly the House Republicans. We coordinated with Rep. Diaz-Balart’s office to create a one pager to be used in the Republican outreach.

▪ We are reaching out to all of our lobby day participants to get them to double back to each of the offices they met with to confirm/identify co-sponsors prior to introduction.

▪ We are continuing our in-district push.

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

▪ We are still working with our partners to coordinate with Snowe’s office to get the Senate version finalized and introduced.