Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Wellstone Parity Act. This legislation will move our country forward to a more intelligent, humane, and cost-effective health care system.

Intelligent because it recognizes a scientific fact, that mental illness and disease can be diagnosed and treated like any physical illness and disease.

Humane because it will provide relief and care for millions who suffer needlessly.

And cost-effective because providing access to primary mental health treatment saves much more expensive catastrophic health care costs and increases productivity of workers suffering from illnesses such as depression and alcoholism.

This is not just a theoretical claim, Mr. Speaker. States like the State of Connecticut, which I come from, have had an operational parity bill for a number of years. It is precisely because of that fact that the carefully crafted language surrounding ERISA by the Education and Labor Committee was designed to protect existing parity laws for State-regulated health care plans. We did not want to have a bill that resulted in States ending up going backwards rather than forwards, and commissioners from States like Wisconsin and Connecticut weighed in and advised our committee to, again, make sure that we design the ERISA language carefully to protect State-regulated plans.

Finally, this legislation adheres to fiscally sound PAYGO rules. And on that note, I would again salute the work that's been done and will work to make sure that these policies in the bill will not stifle research and development for new medical cures and treatments to help those suffering from mental health and addiction problems.

Again, I urge passage of this strong, bipartisan legislation. It is long overdue that our country move in this direction.

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