Please help us engage people in the critical conversation about mental health and substance use disorder parity.

President Obama created the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force in March 2016 to focus key federal agencies on ensuring that Americans receive the coverage and treatment they need. The Task Force wants to hear from patients, families, consumer advocates, health care providers, insurers, and other stakeholders about their experience with mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements.

The task force requests your help to encourage people to share their experiences and ideas. Because your organization communicates with people from whom we would like to collect comments, you are in an excellent position to help get this message to the right audiences.

We put together a social media package to help spread the word. This social media package includes:

• Suggested email/newsletter/website announcements
• A recommended social media editorial calendar
• Recommended Twitter and Facebook posts

We hope that you will:

1. Distribute this material to the best of your ability via your social media and other channels.
2. Forward this package to your member organizations and other stakeholders if you are an umbrella organization.

The Task Force appreciates your cooperation.

 Email/newsletter/website announcement

[SUBJECT LINE]: Public Comment: Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder Parity

[ALT SUBJECT LINE]: Are mental health, substance use disorder, and physical health benefits treated equally?

Less than half of Americans know that there is a law providing consumer protections specifically for mental health and substance use disorder insurance benefits. Over 41 million adults in the U.S. have some form of mental illness, yet in 2014, only 19.4 million adults received mental health care. In the same year, approximately 22.5 million people aged 12 or older in the U.S. had substance use disorder, but only 2.6 million people received treatment at a specialty facility.¹

President Obama created the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force to ensure that Americans understand parity protections and receive the mental health and substance use disorder insurance coverage and treatment they need. After a long history of mental health and substance use disorders being treated differently by health plans – with more limited benefits – parity protections are meant to ensure fairness and that mental health and substance use disorder benefits are comparable to other medical benefits.

So what does mental health and substance use disorder parity mean for you? It means that insurers need to treat copayments, treatment limits, and prior authorization for mental health, substance use disorder, the same way they treat them for physical health care.

Tell us what you think!

The Task Force wants to hear from patients, families, consumer advocates, health care providers, insurers, and other stakeholders on their experience with mental health and substance use disorder insurance parity.

[Call-to-action button text] Comment on parity [link] http://bit.ly/29NKbd0  

¹Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. http://www.samhsa.gov./data

Alternate email/newsletter/website announcement

 [SUBJECT LINE]: Your Opinion Matters: Comment on Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder Parity

[ALT SUBJECT LINE]: Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder Parity: Are we there yet?

Mental health and substance use disorder treatment are part of comprehensive medical care. About half of all Americans will meet criteria for mental illness at some point in their lives, and more than half of Americans know someone in treatment for substance use disorder. Yet, approximately half of all Americans are not aware of the protections in place to guarantee equal insurance coverage for mental health, substance use disorder, and physical health care benefits.¹

Mental health and substance use disorder parity means that insurance benefits for mental health care and substance use disorder treatment must be comparable to physical health benefits.

Tell us what you think!

The Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force wants to hear about your experience with mental health and substance use disorder treatment services. How have parity protections affected you and what are your suggestions for improving awareness of parity protections and monitoring of health plans’ compliance with parity?

[Call-to-action button text] Comment on parity [link] http://bit.ly/2a4xzPZ

¹Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. http://www.samhsa.gov./data

Content for #MentalHealthMonday focus on July 25

If you cannot post this content on Monday, July 25, please do so on Monday, August 1 or Monday, August 8 so we can gain momentum from the existing #MentalHealthMonday conversation.

Please include #parity in all of your Tweets and Facebook posts as shown below. Please do not edit the links, as they have tracking embedded. This will help us measure the impact of our engagement efforts.

Content for month-long social media campaign

Please include #parity in all of your Tweets and Facebook posts as shown below. Please do not edit the links, as they have tracking embedded. This will help us measure the impact of our engagement efforts.

Content for close of campaign

Please include #parity in all of your Tweets and Facebook posts as shown below. Please do not edit the links, as they have tracking embedded. This will help us measure the impact of our engagement efforts.

Last day: August 15