Louie Lujan La Puente Mayor Supports S.S. 1523 — “Jake’s Law”

On March 3rd 2020, Louie Lujan La Puente announced his support of S.B. 1523, a bill that Governor Ducey of Arizona signed S.B. 1523. The law is also known as as ‘Jake’s Law,’ it was signed this past Tuesday due to Jake Machovsky’s suicide in 2016. This bill was introduced so that health care providers would be mandated to not only cover physical health related issues but to also cover mental health illnesses as well.

Louie Lujan La Puente said that As of 2017 an average of four lives every day are lost to suicide in the State of Arizona, raising a huge concern to the public. Suicide is the 8th leading death cause for males and 11th for women in Arizona but is concerningly the 10th leading cause in the country. Under Jake’s Law, congress has introduced statutes to expand behavioral health services and hold insurance companies accountable for denying further care.

Louie Lujan reminds you that Jake’s Law will consist of:

● Trained staff in making sure insurance providers abide to the law,

● Creation of the Children’s Behavioral Services Fund

● Mental Health Parity Advisory Committee

● A suicide mortality team

● 8 million dollars for behavioral services for uninsured and underinsured children,

● Research to help prevent future suicides,

● Increased follow-up services for suicidal patients

Louie Lujan thanked Governor Ducey and said that he has a history of taking action on combating teen suicide rates in the Arizona community. Ducey also signed the Mitch Warnock Act which required all school employees that work with students from 6th-12th grade and AHCCCS employees, to receive a suicide prevention and awareness training every three years. This bill was signed into law in May of 2018 and was named after Mitch Warnock who also lost his life to suicide at the age of 18. In addition to these signed acts, in 2018 Governor Ducey also added a 3-million-dollar budget to expand behavioral health care service on school campuses.