From SAMHSA's Weekly Financing News Pulse: National Edition - March 26, 2010: After President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) on March 23, Congress passed the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (HR 4872), making changes to the original health reform bill.  The House initially passed HR 4872 March 21 and the Senate took up the bill under reconciliation, requiring only 51 votes for final passage and avoiding a potential GOP filibuster.  Despite rejecting approximately 40 GOP amendments designed to force Democrats into politically unpopular votes, Republicans successfully removed two education provisions from the bill because they were ineligible for consideration under the budget reconciliation process.   On March 25, the Senate approved the modified bill on a 56-43 vote, sending it back to the House, which approved the measure on a 220-207 the same night.  In both votes, Republicans unanimously opposed the bill.  The House Ways and Means Committee published an official implementation timeline for the bill, as did the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).  Behavioral health organizations, including the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) and the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, have praised the laws as major steps forward in behavioral health coverage.  The organizations note that health plans provided through the new exchanges must offer behavioral health coverage at parity and that the new laws fund a three-year $75 million demonstration project designed to increase access to emergency psychiatric care.  In addition, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius plans to issue regulations clarifying a provision in the bill designed to guarantee immediate coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.  Democrats intended the language to require all insures to accept such children; however, some advocates contend that the measure’s language would only apply to children already enrolled in insurance plans.  Furthermore, some legal experts note that the regulation may prompt a legal challenge, allowing the courts final say on interpreting the measure.  Finally, Republicans have mounted opposition to the bill at both the national and state level.  Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) proposed legislation (S 3152) to repeal Democratic health care reform on March 23 and attorneys general in 14 states have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the bills’ individual mandate.  Attorneys general in 13 states (AL, CO, FL, ID, LA, MI, NE, PA, SC, SD, TX, UT, and WA) filed a joint lawsuit in federal court in Pensacola, Florida naming the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor as defendants and claiming that the bill’s individual mandate violates the U.S. Constitution.  In addition, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) filed a separate suit, arguing it conflicts with a recently-passed state law exempting Virginians from federal penalties for failure to obtain health coverage. 

View the March 26 Financing News Pulse: National Edition here (PDF | 152.38)