ICYMI: In May, Congressman Dan Goldman Introduced Michelle Go Act to Help Alleviate Mental Health Crisis

Bipartisan ‘Michelle Go Act’ Would Expand Access to Psychiatric Care by Allowing Federal Medicaid to Pay for Psychiatric Beds in Certain Facilities

Goldman: “We have the opportunity to make sure that the tragedy of Michelle Go’s death never happens again by helping those on Medicaid to get the treatment they need."

Read the Bill Here

Washington DC – Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10), Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Congressman Tony Cárdenas (CA-29), and Congressman Gus M. Bilirakis (FL-12) introduced the ‘Michelle Alyssa Go Act’ to increase the number of federal Medicaid-eligible in-patient psychiatric beds for individuals who are seeking treatment for both mental health and substance use disorders. This bipartisan legislation would also require mental health facilities that receive federal Medicaid funding to meet nationally recognized, evidence-based standards for mental health or substance use disorder programs.

The ‘Michelle Alyssa Go Act’ is named after a 40-year-old woman who was tragically pushed to her death in front of an incoming subway train at a stop in Times Square. After the attack, a 61-year-old man experiencing homelessness with diagnosed Schizophrenia named Martial Simon admitted to shoving Go in front of the train. According to news reports, after showing signs of schizophrenia in his 30s, Mr. Simon spent time bouncing between hospitals, jails, and outpatient psychiatric programs without ever receiving the long-term care he needed. The bill is supported by Michelle’s father, Justin Go.

New York Times: Subway Killing Spurs Bill to Expand Medicaid Funds for Psychiatric Beds

May 23, 2024

Mr. Goldman is the lead author of the bill, the Michelle Go Act, named after the woman who was fatally pushed in front of a subway train in New York in 2022 by a man with schizophrenia, who had spent decades rotating from hospital to jail to street.

Mr. Goldman said in an interview that the legislation would “not only provide for significantly more beds for long-term mental health care but has the potential to increase the ability for those who cannot afford mental health care to get the treatment they need.”

NY1: Reps. Goldman, Malliotakis introduce 'Michelle Go Act' aimed at boosting inpatient mental healthcare treatment

May 24, 2024

In the long-run, the lawmakers hope that by increasing care options, their bill can help combat random acts of violence that have recently put the Big Apple on edge.

“The thinking here is if we can tackle the mental health issues that so many more people are going through post-COVID that we’ll be able to reduce crime, but also reduce that feeling of insecurity that some people have in the city,” Goldman said.

In a statement, Go’s father Justin praised the bill’s rollout, saying the legislation “is a critical first step in preventing future tragedies by fixing a part of the very systems that failed her.”

New York Daily News: Getting help to the mentally ill: Dan Goldman and Nicole Malliotakis are right to fix this Medicaid problem

May 26, 2024

The bill didn’t pass then — but now it’s back in amended form, reintroduced by Reps. Dan Goldman of Manhattan and Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island. He’s a Democrat, she’s a Republican, but both see the self-destructiveness of prohibiting the federal government’s health-care program serving the poor from covering the inpatient care that seriously mentally ill people need most.

Importantly, the new version of the bill doesn’t end the IMD exclusion entirely. It instead increases the cap from 16 to 36 beds, consistent with a proposal from mental health advocate Cheryl Roberts, who wrote in these pages that such a compromise might strike the right balance by alleviating fears that, should broader reforms pass, America might slide back into an era of large-scale asylums.

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