APA Joins Physician Partners on Capitol Hill to Fight for CHIP

Immediate Past APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., joined leaders of five other frontline physician organizations on Capitol Hill last month to meet with members of Congress and urge reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). They also addressed other issues important to the profession of psychiatry and its patients. Together, the coalition represents more than 560,000 physicians and medical students.

During meetings with 10 senators and representatives, Oquendo made clear that CHIP plays a vital role in extending health insurance to many children and adolescents from low-income families who do not qualify for Medicaid. As the only psychiatrist in these meetings, she emphasized how important it is that children have access to mental health care, citing that nearly 50 percent of all mental illnesses emerge by age 14 and 75 percent by age 24. She also urged lawmakers to adopt the CHIP Mental Health Parity Act (HR 3192) to add mental health and substance use disorder services as “basic services” in CHIP plans.

In addition to urging reauthorization of CHIP, the physician representatives also called on Congress to continue an Affordable Care Act requirement that states maintain their CHIP income eligibility levels through 2019. ■