Advocacy and You

Join the Advocacy/Legislative Committee and get involved with current policy and social justice work in WY!

Past Success! 

Do you Remember House Bill 0211

House Bill 0211: Mental Health and Substance Use Coverage Parity is a bill NASW-WY supported in the 2019 Legislative Session and it passed! 

It created a state level law that gives the Wyoming Insurance Commissioner the authority to enforce the 2008 Federal Law ensuring that health insurance policies that have mental health and substance use treatment coverage- that this coverage is equal to the coverage for medical/surgical coverage in the same policy. For example, co-pays for mental health office visits cannot be higher than co-pays for an office visit with a primary care physician. Rules for in-network and out-of-network providers cannot be different for mental health coverage than for medical coverage. This is a step in the right direction to improving access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment in Wyoming.

Contacting your legislators does have an impact!  Thank you to everyone who contacted their legislators and to the sponsors of this bill! Dr. Hollis Hackman on the far right of the photo lobbied for this bill and gave NASW direction on how our association could help to help get it passed. The photo is Governor Mark Gordon seated to sign the bill into law. From left to right: Rep. Clarence Styvar, Senator Mike Gierau, Sen. Lissa Anselmi-Dalton, Sen. Fred Baldwin, Rep. Joann Dayton-Selman, Sen. Stephan Pappas, Rhianna Brand, Grace for 2 Brothers, Dr. Chen, CRMC, Veronica Pedersen, NASW-WY, Dr. Hollis Hackman, APA and AFSP.