Electronic Fall 2023 | Issue 56
The President's Unity Agenda
By: Kenneth Busch MD
Most of our initiatives in government affairs are centered around particular bills in Springfield and on Capitol Hill. We lobby our State Legislators and Members of Congress to advance or forestall specific legislation from moving forward. A roundtable of Judicial leaders was recently convened by IPS for education about the Judicial branch.
An opportunity came up this past year to participate at the White House Health Care Briefings and to share with colleagues about the Executive branch and how it works to promote health care advocacy.
President Biden's goals in the Unity Agenda include improving mental health, beating the opioid epidemic, supporting Veterans and Service Members and ending cancer as we know it. These are particular areas where members of both political parties can come together for making progress on key issues for all Americans.
President Biden and Vice-President Harris are deeply committed to addressing the nation's mental health and substance use crisis and have designated this as top priorities on the Unity Agenda. Many of the White House meetings have focused on this with key leaders from the President's Cabinet and senior advisors in the Administration.
Progress has been made by expanding access to services and investment of billions of dollars through the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in support of mental health care.
Strategic plans are being addressed to expand the behavioral health work force and more slots will be available to GME programs to train psychiatrists.
Other plans are underway to address burn out and support services for mental health professionals.
Expansion of behavioral health services is taking place in schools with additional funding by the Biden-Harris Administration for needed care and treatment.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched nationwide by the President last year with a billion dollar investment by the Biden-Harris Administration. It includes a network of more than 200 state and local call centers for people looking for help with suicide, mental health and substance use crises. Additional services have been added to ensure access to Veterans and the hard of hearing community who use sign language. This is part of the ongoing commitment of the President and Vice-President to make sure no one is left behind for mental health support.
Recently, the President announced new actions that would improve and strengthen mental health parity requirements. The proposed rule will ensure that more Americans with private health insurance will have greater access to mental health and substance use care compared to physical health benefits. It would also make it easier to receive in-network mental health treatment and eliminate barriers to care.
Supporting our nation's Veterans and Service members is of highest priority under the President's Unity Agenda. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken steps to expand services for access to care to mental health assessment and treatment and new resources for suicide prevention.
Finally, as part of the Unity Agenda, the President is committed to additional investments to prevent, screen, treat and survive cancer and ending cancer as we know it. President Biden will be convening a meeting of the Cancer Cabinet on the new initiatives for the White House Cancer Moonshot Program.
What have I learned by participating at the White House Health Care Briefings?
Much is being accomplished by the Biden-Harris Administration in regards to the Unity Agenda especially on mental health and substance use. It is another perspective on what can be done nationally at the level of the Executive branch to advance our priorities.
There is so much more to add here and best saved for another time and venue. In closing it is an absolute privilege to be able to share with you and hope you find this informative.