Dear Professional Counselor,
As we begin a new era in American government, we are writing to invite you to do three things: first, to renew or initiate your membership in the Professional Counseling Fund; second, to contribute as a sponsor for our annual reception; and third, to send us feedback about your experience of the Professional Counseling Fund, its website, Constant Comment messages, etcetera.
To send us your comments, either use the contribution form or send an email message to one of us. Pat McGinn's email is patmcginn@uchicago.edu; and Rebecca Farrell is beccafarrell@hotmail.com.
With the start of a new Congress our counselor bills, particularly for inclusion as Medicare providers, will again be presented. Also at the beginning of the congressional session are the fundraisers for key members of these committees. We use our PCF funds to send our lobbyist, Scott Barstow, to attend these fundraisers as one method to bring our message to legislators and to help our supporters in Congress. We also expect to continue our support of the counselor licensure effort in California.
To send us your comments, either use the contribution form or send an email message to one of us. Pat McGinn's email is patmcginn@uchicago.edu; and Rebecca Farrell is beccafarrell@hotmail.com.
We look forward to your renewal and to beginning a new year of advocacy for counselors and their clients.
Sincerely,
Pat McGinn and Rebecca Farrell
Presidents, Professional Counseling Fund
:: DONATE NOW!
CONGRESS AND OBAMA MAKING MAJOR INVESTMENTS
IN HEALTH CARE
With Barack Obama's inauguration as president on January 20, his administration begins formal work with Congress on an aggressive agenda to improve access to health care. The discussions taking place- and the work already begun by Congress to date- signal that this year will provide counselors with an unprecedented opportunity to increase recognition under federal health care policies and programs.
Congress is moving to invest billions of dollars in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The House has passed legislation to reauthorize the program for four and a half years, including $34.3 billion in new spending, and permitting the enrollment of 4 million additional children and adults. The Senate Finance Committee has approved a similar version of the bill, and Congressional leaders are hopeful the legislation can be quickly approved by both chambers for President Obama's signature into law. Although the SCHIP legislation does not address specific types of health care providers, the bill's movement indicates a willingness by members of Congress to significantly increase federal investments in health care services.
In another sign of good news, both President-elect Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have indicated that they want to dramatically reduce government payments to private managed care companies the Medicare Advantage program. Private companies are being paid billions of dollars in subsidies to provide health care services to Medicare beneficiaries, money that could be used instead to improve Medicare's benefit package-such as by establishing coverage of licensed professional mental health counselors.
In the last Congress, Democrat leaders had wanted to sharply reduce such payments, providing the money to include coverage of counselors and other needed benefit improvements. However, the opposition of the Bush administration and Senate Republicans to these Medicare Advantage payment reductions dried up the pool of money available for this, and forced Congress to instead approve a much smaller Medicare bill to temporarily postpone physician pay cuts.
With a huge physician pay cut scheduled to occur at the end of 2009, the willingness of President Obama and a more firmly Democrat-controlled Congress to make major investments in health care programs and cut taxpayer subsidies to private-sector health plans bode well for counselors' efforts to gain Medicare coverage. The Professional Counseling Fund encourages counselors to contribute toward our push this year toward this goal. PCF is making a concerted push to engage with leading lawmakers, and your contribution can make this push even stronger.
We have a golden opportunity, and PCF is working to make the most of it. Thank you for your support, and please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.
PCF CITED IN THE PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR'S DESK REFERENCE
The Professional Counselor's Desk Reference edited by Irmo Marini & Mark Stebnicki and published by Springer Publishing referred to PCF in Chapter 3, "What Practitioners Need to Know About Professional Credentialing," pp. 27-38, authored by Vilia M. Tarvydas & Michael T. Hartley. The paragraph about PCF is on page 33, and includes the PCF website. "Professional Counseling Fund" is also included in the book's index.
We hope this information is of interest, and we thank you for your support. Please click on our website or call the number below to make a contribution to the fund.
Sincerely,
 
Pat McGinn Rebecca Farrell
President Co-President
Professional Counseling Fund Professional Counseling Fund
Contact Information
email: info@counselingfund.org
phone: 773-363-8313
web: http://www.counselingfund.org
ACT!
Write Congress!
It is extremely helpful for you as a professional counselor to provide your elected federal representatives with information about legislation affecting their counselor/constituents. Let your legislator know your opinion about pending legislation. Write, fax, call and email frequently in order to participate in the democratic process. What you have to say does matter to legislators. If your legislator only hears from professional counseling’s opponents, he or she will think there is no contrary opinion and we will have only our own passivity to blame if laws which adversely affect professional counseling are passed.
To Contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives:
http://www.house.gov
To Contact your member of the U.S. Senate:
http://www.senate.gov
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