ATTENTION GEORGIA: Urge Your Senator to Say No to the Federal Gov Making GA Mental Health Decisions

Our Stand: At-A-Glance

• HB1013 is a sweeping 77-page bill that makes overreaching changes to law relating to “courts, education, health, insurance, mental health, public officers and employees, and social services.”
• HB1013 requires Georgians to be in “compliance with federal law regarding mental health parity.”
• “Parity” refers to the way insurance pays for mental health and substance abuse treatments in comparison to the way it pays for illnesses and accidents. But this bill is so much more! It changes the standards for involuntary commitment and the rights one has in the courts once they are detained against their will.
• Student loans may be cancelled—not only for people entering mental health fields, but also any area of nursing and the national guard, too. The inclusion of military in a bill about government oversight of mental health is telling. Cancellation of debt is a Trojan horse to get support for sweeping overreach. This provision tucked in a bill supposedly about mental health insurance fairness serves only to increase taxes.
• Diagnoses and the standard of care for mental health and substance abuse issues are expanded under this bill to include “recommendations from federal agencies,” and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases.
• The bill will create an Office of Health Strategy and Coordination under direction of the Governor, with the purpose of “centralizing” and strengthening and the health infrastructure through “interconnecting health functions and sharing resources across multiple state agencies,” and finding ways to “maximize federal funds.” In other words, this new office will increase mental health data sharing, and adoption of federal laws in the state of Georgia (because federal laws get implemented at the state level through incentives of federal funding).
• This bill will increase government control over your family’s mental health.
• This bill will have a massive economic impact on Georgia. It does more than require insurance companies to pay for mental health services; it creates multiple new councils, agencies, task forces, and offices, and increases public officers needed to respond to emergencies.
• HB1013 is a sweeping 77-page bill that makes overreaching changes to law relating to “courts, education, health, insurance, mental health, public officers and employees, and social services.”
• HB1013 requires Georgians to be in “compliance with federal law regarding mental health parity.”
• “Parity” refers to the way insurance pays for mental health and substance abuse treatments in comparison to the way it pays for illnesses and accidents. But this bill is so much more! It changes the standards for involuntary commitment and the rights one has in the courts once they are detained against their will.
• Student loans may be cancelled—not only for people entering mental health fields, but also any area of nursing and the national guard, too. The inclusion of military in a bill about government oversight of mental health is telling. Cancellation of debt is a Trojan horse to get support for sweeping overreach. This provision tucked in a bill supposedly about mental health insurance fairness serves only to increase taxes.
• Diagnoses and the standard of care for mental health and substance abuse issues are expanded under this bill to include “recommendations from federal agencies,” and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases.
• The bill will create an Office of Health Strategy and Coordination under direction of the Governor, with the purpose of “centralizing” and strengthening and the health infrastructure through “interconnecting health functions and sharing resources across multiple state agencies,” and finding ways to “maximize federal funds.” In other words, this new office will increase mental health data sharing, and adoption of federal laws in the state of Georgia (because federal laws get implemented at the state level through incentives of federal funding).
• This bill will increase government control over your family’s mental health.
• This bill will have a massive economic impact on Georgia. It does more than require insurance companies to pay for mental health services; it creates multiple new councils, agencies, task forces, and offices, and increases public officers needed to respond to emergencies.