Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I am pleased to follow my friend Mr. Murphy who just spoke, with whom I agree entirely. This will be a cost savings. I want to congratulate as well PATRICK KENNEDY and JIM RAMSTAD, one a Democrat and one a Republican.

But this is not a partisan issue. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an issue of human beings. It is an issue of people that need help and have been denied it, people who are one of us, as Mr. Murphy so eloquently and correctly pointed out.

I rise in strong support of this legislation. I strongly support this long overdue bipartisan legislation to end discrimination against patients seeking treatment for mental illness. Mr. Kennedy spoke of that discrimination.

I want to commend Congressman Kennedy and my friend Congressman Ramstad. Congressman Ramstad is going to be leaving us, but he has been one of the best Members that has served in this body, who looks at issues on their merits, not on partisanship. We all ought to do that.

This legislation, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, now has 274 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle. Under this bill, an insurer or group health plan must ensure that any financial requirements such as deductibles, copayments, coinsurance and out-of-pocket expenses which apply to mental health and addiction treatments are no more restrictive or costly than the financial requirements applied to comparable medical and surgical benefits that the plan confers.

Why does it do that? It does it because in America we want healthy people; not physically healthy people or mentally healthy people, but people who are physically and mentally healthy, because obviously there is an extraordinary relationship between the two. Under this bill, we will accomplish that end.

It also requires equity in treatment limits. This means that the treatment limits, such as the frequency of treatment, number of visits and days of coverage applied to mental health and addiction benefits, are no more restrictive than the treatment limits applied to comparable medical and surgical benefits. Why? Again, because we want to effect the health of the individuals we are serving.

It is important to note that this bill only applies to insurers and group health plans that provide mental health benefits. That is, it does not require plans that do not currently offer mental health benefits to do so. It simply says, if you provide mental health benefits, do so equitably and fairly and equally. That is why PATRICK KENNEDY referred to this as a civil rights bill. It is a civil rights bill.

It also exempts businesses with 50 or fewer employees and businesses that experience an overall premium increase of 2 percent or more in the first year and 1 percent in subsequent years. We believe that perhaps will not happen, but it provides for it.

Research has shown that there has been no significant cost increase attributable to the parity requirement in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which has made parity coverage for mental health care available to more than 8 1/2 million Federal employees for 8 years. So we have had experience at this. This is not a radical departure. This is, however, the provision of equal treatment.

Furthermore, this bill's enforcement mechanisms are real, permitting the IRS to enforce and levy fines and penalties on plans for disallowing employers from deducting health care costs as an expense.

The two offsets in this bill were included in the Children's Health and Medical Protection Act, or the CHAMP Act, which passed the House last August. The first increases the rebate or discount that drug companies are required to provide State Medicaid programs for drugs provided for Medicaid beneficiaries. The second prohibits physicians from referring patients to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest, with the ability to grandfather existing physician-owned hospitals.

It is telling, Mr. Speaker, that this bill is supported by, among others, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association.

On the steps of the Capitol in a press conference with the Speaker, with Mrs. Rosalynn Carter, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Ramstad, as well as David Wellstone, I said that the United Negro College Fund has a wonderful phrase that it uses, and that phrase is that ``a mind is a terrible thing to waste.'' That is so very accurate. And if a mind is a terrible thing to waste, it is a terrible thing not to treat, as we would treat the broken arm or the diabetes or any other physical ailment.

This bill makes America healthier. This bill will save money. This bill makes good sense, morally and economically. Support this vital piece of legislation.

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