Ventura Cannabis and Wellness Corp CVHIF

No Changes to Mental Health Coverage - "Trumpcare"

[Ghostdance]

I've done my first read of the "Trumpcare" proposal this morning. So far I haven't been able to find any indication that they will be repealing or rolling back any initatives to do with mental health coverage. 

As a quick recap for people who may not be farmiliar:

- In 2008, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act. This Act required that health insurers  offer mental health/addiction coverage benefits that were equal in value to other health benefits (emergency etc.) provided on their plans. This assumed they offered any mental health coverage, at all. Notobaly, this Act did not require health insurers to offer any mental health coverage as part of their plans.

- In 2010, the ACA (Obamacare) established minimum standards for what health insurers were required to offer in their health plans. These standards included mental health coverage.

- Taken together, these two Acts meant that (1) health insurers now needed to offer mental health coverage, and (2) that coverage needed to be equal in value to the other medical benefits they offered.

That's a very high level explanation of the legislative background that lead to the creation of Convalo in the first place.

I was concerned that the "Trumpcare" proposal would either negate elements of the Mental Health Parity Act or repeal the minimum coverage standards required by Obamacare. So far (and after my first read) I haven't been able to find that. 

If anyone draws a different conclusion looking at the legislation, I'd love to hear it. 

The link to the high level section-by-section summary is here: https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/03.06.17-Section-by-Section.pdf

The link to the full legislative doc is here:
https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/AmericanHealthCareAct_WM.pdf

Cheers