Help us all

April 18, 2018

Jill Conner’s two daughters struggled with drug addiction. Both also had insurance coverage, but that’s where the similarities end.

Jill’s older daughter couldn’t find a treatment facility that would accept her insurance. Three days before her 27th birthday, she overdosed on fentanyl and died in her parents’ home.

Her younger sister found care—at a facility in Utah. She is now two years in recovery.

Jill shared her children’s stories, and her support for House Bill 18-1357, with the state legislature yesterday. The bill would strengthen the enforcement of mental health parity and network adequacy laws; it would also create an ombuds office to help Coloradans navigate the mental health system.

The House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee approved HB 1357 by a vote of 8 to 4, sending the bill on to the House Appropriations Committee. Please tell your state representative and state senator to support it as well.

Jill and her husband are now raising their seven-year-old grandson, still traumatized by his mother’s death. Jill joined our network of advocates (the Brain Wave) because she doesn’t want other families to suffer.

“You have an entire generation of children who are losing parents to mental health and substance use issues,” Jill told lawmakers. “You must do something to help us all.”

-Andrew Romanoff