Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.
(Publication Archives)

Friday Fax from Albany

Senate Majority Defeats Timothy’s Law: After several days of non-stop negotiations around parity legislation, the Senate leadership ended discussions earlier this evening, choosing to pass S.7296-A rather than Timothy’s Law. The O’Clair’s have rejected that controversial bill (saying “It isn’t Timothy’s Law”), as it represents what would be the weakest parity law in the nation. A collection of carve-out and exemption language from states like Arkansas and Mississippi, the bill excludes chemical dependency, employers with 50 or fewer employees, and the vast majority of mental health diagnoses.

Over the past few days, there has been substantial movement towards a new Assembly version of Timothy’s Law, A.11694. Quite similar to the original Timothy’s Law, the new bill differs in two ways. First, it would exempt sole proprietors from mandatory coverage, so that people who pay for only their own insurance, and have no employees, would not have to take parity-based coverage if they did not want it. Secondly, and more importantly, the bill created a tax relief provision for all small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees. Addressing the concerns of small businesses, the Assembly offered $50 million in tax relief to resolve the perceived, albeit unproven, issue.

With the right kind of coverage attached to the right kind of protection for employers, activity around the bill was fast and furious. But, by the time the issue reached the floor of the Senate, the final vote was quick and infuriating.

As debate on S.7296-A began, long-time friend and Timothy’s Law supporter Senator Tom Duane made a motion to amend the bill, replacing the contents of that bill with the original Timothy’s Law bill, A.8301/S.5329, which passed the Assembly in March. As noted below, the debate was as passionate as it was painful. With Donna and Tom O’Clair, joined by mental health advocates and Assembly sponsor Paul Tonko watching from the Senate Gallery, several original Senate co-sponsors of Timothy’s Law took to the microphone to bash their own bill. Democratic Senators turned towards the gallery and apologized to the O’Clairs for the Senate's collective failure to pass Timothy’s Law.

But at the end of the day, session will end without Timothy’s Law. Even though the bill the Senate passed fails to serve about 70% of the people who would be reached by Timothy’s Law, and doesn’t even cover PTSD (so survivors of September 11th, as well as victims of sexual predators would not get the help they need), leaders have deemed their work to be done.

“I’m sorry. I’m very sorry.” At approximately 8:15 p.m., on the last night of the Regular Legislative Session, Senator Eric Schneiderman, Deputy Minority Leader of the New York State Senate, turned to Tom and Donna O’Clair, who were seated in the Senate Gallery above him and said, “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry.”

Senator Schneiderman and his colleagues in the Senate Minority, led by Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, had just unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Senate from ensuring that no action would be taken on Timothy’s Law this year.

In a spirited debate, despite the best attempts of Senate Democrats, this vote failed, along strict party lines. Although we cannot provide you with an exact list of those who voted in favor or in opposition to this amendment at this time, the information will be forthcoming shortly.

We can, however, share with you some excerpts from the debate.

Senator Libous began the debate by explaining his legislation, S.7296-a, on the floor, by noting that the Senate had promised to pass mental health parity legislation this Session, and promising that the Senate would indeed pass it tonight. He noted, incorrectly, that this bill (S.7296-a) covers children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He went on to say that his legislation (S.7296-a, not S.5329, which is also his legislation) would “protect the rights of small businesses” by exempting employers with 50 or fewer employees.

Shortly after that, Senator Duane rose to introduce his amendment, amending S.7296-a with Senator Libous’ other legislation, S.5329, or Timothy’s Law. In an impassioned speech on the matter, Senator Duane summed the entire debate up in one simple phrase when he noted, “This is a life and death issue. It was a life or death issue for Timothy, it ruined the life of his family.”

Senator Schneiderman continued where Senator Duane stopped, commenting on the fact that S.7296-a allows an insurance company to nullify such a law merely by having an actuary issue a report saying that mental health parity would increase premiums by 2% or more. To this, he stated, “We’re passing a law that, I assure you, will never apply to one person in the state.”

Senator Liz Krueger also spoke on the amendment, imploring her colleagues to support it, noting that the legislation which served as the amendment (S.5329, Timothy’s Law) had already been introduced, and that, “54 members of this chamber are already on record, committed to the bill that is now Senator Duane’s amendment before us.”

At this point, debate on the amendment ceased, the vote was taken, and in the end, the Senate Majority voted against Timothy’s Law, ensuring that the bill would not be passed during the Regular Legislative Session. Senator Libous himself voted against the amendment, in essence, voting against his own bill. Almost every member of the Senate Minority voted in favor of this amendment, in essence, voting for Timothy’s Law. A full list of the vote will be provided as soon as MHANYS can obtain it.

It was then that debate on S.7296-a began. In his remarks on the bill, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson noted that, “It is almost as if we are going back 30 years and questioning if mental illness exists at all.”

He went on to note that, “I think, in many ways, in this legislation (S.7296-a), we are blaming the victim.”

When Senate Minority Leader David Paterson finished his eloquent address, the true importance of the matter being discussed in the Senate Chamber came to light. In a rare move, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno offered debate on a bill on the floor.

After noting that, “This is not political grandstanding in any way…This is about taking a giant step forward to create parity for those who have a mental illness of any kind,” Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno defended this legislation that would discriminate against the majority of New Yorker’s living with mental illness.

Senator Bruno made mention of compromise legislation that had been offered by the Assembly, and endorsed by the O’Clair family, which would have enacted Timothy’s Law and provided small businesses with up to a 3% tax credit to offset any premium increases which they may experience. In response to this, he stated emphatically that the Senate would not do a bill that had tax credits in it. He went on to note that they would not do it tonight, or over the summer, or next year, due to the fact that it was irresponsible to pass tax credits while the state was facing such a large budget deficit.

Later, while explaining her vote against S.7296-a, Senator Liz Krueger made mention of the fact that the Senate Majority had recently introduced and passed legislation that would have provided a $665 million tax credit to small businesses. The tax credit being discussed in the compromise version of Timothy’s Law was estimated to be between $47 and $96 million.

In explaining his vote in support of S.7296-a, Senator John DeFrancisco stated that to have passed the amendment (S.5329, Timothy’s Law), “would be irresponsible.”

Senator DeFrancisco remains to this day a co-sponsor of S.5329, and has spoken in support of the measure to advocates on multiple occasions.

Senator Libous, who felt compelled to explain his vote in support of S.7296-a and against the amendment, his own piece of legislation, S.5329, stated, “The amendment is fuzzy.”

During his explanation, Senator Libous also confused an earlier statement he had made, that this legislation was not political and should not be partisan, by comparing Timothy’s Law and mental health and substance abuse parity to two of the most controversial, partisan, and strictly political issues of our day. Senator Libous noted quite clearly that mental health parity, “… is an issue similar to abortion, the death penalty and others.”

However, upon explaining his vote in support of the amendment, while at the same time echoing a number of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle in saying that S.7296-a will not pass the Assembly, Senator John Bonacic made possibly the most prescient statement of the evening when he made one simple observation.

Senator Bonacic said, “It’s not over yet.”

And it is not over, please continue to watch as MHANYS will promises to keep you updated in the upcoming days and weeks about what you can do to help make Timothy’s Law a reality this year. We thank all of you for helping us get to this point. We thank Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, Senator Thomas Duane, Senator Liz Krueger and Senator Eric Schneiderman and their colleagues for their comments on the floor and their continued support of Timothy’s Law. We thank Assemblyman Paul Tonko, Assemblyman Peter Rivera, Assemblyman Pete Grannis and their colleagues in the Assembly for all of their hard work and dedication.