Mental health takes center stage as filibuster resumes in Neb. Legislature
LINCOLN, Neb. — After days of emotional debate that pitted liberal against conservative senator there seemed to be some consensus in the Nebraska Legislature on Friday.
LB 276, which would create a certified community behavioral health clinic model in Nebraska, drew widespread support.
"This type of care system will be, colleagues, a game changer in helping us address these issues as results from the pilot program have shown," said Sen. Anna Wishart, who has been working on similar legislation for years.
Sen. Wishart said the model would allow non-profit clinics to get Medicaid match dollars and bill for their work with law enforcement and schools.
She said a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services rate study found may providers were only getting reimbursed 15% to 40% under their actual costs.
An amendment would put a $4.5 million dollar cap spending, but Wishart said she doesn't think more money will be needed on top of what is already appropriated to behavioral health.
"It is clear to me that we are consistently as a state appropriating dollars to behavioral health aid that is unable to be spent because there is a lack of innovative approaches like this that allow for providers to truly bill for the services that allows them to attract the staff to provide these services,” said Wishart. “What we're seeing is that while we're appropriating dollars continuously to support behavioral health aid the investments that are actually being made by the state are coming in significantly below that. In fact, we had a $335 million carry over in behavioral health aid this year."
However, the passing of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender kids to the next round of debate Thursday was not forgotten.
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“I don’t get how you guys can vote green on that bill yesterday and introduce the very dangerous pieces of legislation that some of you have introduced this year and then stand up on the mic and want to talk about how you care about the mental health of Nebraskans,” said Sen. Jen Day. “It’s absurd. I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know how you sleep at night.”
Day pointed out the days of debate focused on the mental health of transgender youth.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh vowed to keep her promise to filibuster the rest of the session.
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"I appreciate the work that Senator Wishart has put into this, and I think that it is a good piece of legislation. That however does not change the fact that this will be going eight hours and requiring 33 votes for cloture as will everything on the agenda," said Cavanaugh.
