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PAC Contributions Help APA Ensure Congress Hears Us

As you know, APA has a wide range of advocacy and educational activities and programs, and I would like to focus this column on one of them: APA's political action committee (PAC). Obviously, one of APA's major objectives is not only to continue but also to significantly increase our advocacy activities.

While APA is committing substantial financial support to our district branches and state associations for state-level grass-roots advocacy priorities, our political action committee (designated as APAPAC) is also working at the national level to educate and lobby members of and candidates for Congress on psychiatry's interests. Some members believe that PAC contributions are distasteful, but an effective PAC is a vital part of our coordinated grass-roots and political strategy.

While APAPAC is still in its infancy, it is already a success. Under the dedicated leadership of the PAC Board of Directors, contributions from APA members and staff continue to increase (see chart).

APAPAC works hand in hand with the day-to-day lobbying of our dedicated Department of Government Relations (DGR) staff to advance APA's legislative priorities and to provide greater access to members of Congress than ever before.

These are among the results of the collaborative efforts:

• In June Rep. John sullivan (R-Okla.) introduced the Healthcare Truth and Transparency act to promote patient safety by distinguishing between physicians and nonphysicians who foster confusion by cloaking themselves with the "medical" or "physician" label. APAPAC's efforts and coalition building played a central role in this legislation's introduction and gathering of bill cosponsors.
  
• Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) bucked his own party's committee chair to secure House passage of an important amendment that exempted antipsychotics and antidepressants from Medicaid's tiered pricing scheme.
  
• Reps. Ben Cardin (DMd.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) sponsored APA-proposed legislation to provide benzodiazepine coverage under Medicare Part D.
  
• APA became the first physician group to brief the Blue Dog coalition (a policy-oriented group of moderate and conservative Democrats in the House). As a direct result of this opportunity to educate members of Congress, APA picked up new cosponsors for a parity bill, a bill to end Medicare's 50 percent coinsurance for outpatient mental health services, and a bill to ensure benzodiazepine coverage under Medicare Part D. The briefing was made possible by APAPAC and DGR collaboration.
  
• Membership of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus is at an all-time high, as APAPAC continues to work to educate members of Congress on our issues and urge them to join the caucus and express their support.
  
• Congress passed legislation to lift the 30-patient limit on group practices treating outpatients for addictions to opiates.
  
• APAPAC has greatly facilitated DGR lobbyists' access to House leadership and committee chairs during the health information technology debate.
  
• APAPAC support has facilitated education of members of Congress and staff about Scientology propaganda.
  

There is much more to accomplish—2006 is a landmark election year with control of Congress up for grabs. We need your support to help APA take full advantage of this opportunity to educate and work with key legislators as they debate these issues:

• improving reimbursement of psychiatrists and participating in the pay-for-performance discussion.
  
• Preventing arbitrary exclusion of the full range of psychotropic medications under Medicare Part D.
  
• Ending discrimination in insurance plans, including medicare, against people with mental illness.
  
• Stopping the erosion of medical records privacy.
  
• Opposing draconian cuts to Medicaid programs.
  
• Maintaining funding for research and VA health care.
  

APAPAC is an absolutely essential part of our advocacy efforts; however, only 6 percent of the APA membership contributes to our PAC. The remaining 94 percent of us need to do our part. Because psychiatry has unique legislative issues, and APAPAC is the only political action committee exclusively dedicated to our medical specialty concerns, it is essential that APA members support it, particularly during this important election.

To obtain more information about APAPAC and to contribute, please go to the Members Corner section of APA's Web site at <www.psych.org/members/apapac/index.cfm>. Certain federal contractors may not be eligible to contribute.

Related Articles:

Building Psychiatry's Future...
Psychiatr News 2006 41: 13. [Full Text]

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