APA Leader Meets With Key Senator

Joseph Rubin, M.D., speaker of the APA Assembly, meets with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in Portland, Maine. Snowe, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee's Healthcare Subcommittee, introduced the Medicare Copayment Equity Act of 2005 (S 1152) in the Senate in late May with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). The bill seeks to reduce the current discriminatory Medicare 50 percent copayment for outpatient psychiatric services to 20 percent. A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in March. The visit with Snowe is part of an ongoing program at APA—through its political action committee, APAPAC—in which APA members educate federal legislators and policymakers about mental health issues.