Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007

PAUL WELLSTONE MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTION EQUITY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - March 05, 2008)

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today to support the passage of H.R. 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, a comprehensive bill which will establish full mental health and addiction care parity. My colleagues, Representative PATRICK KENNEDY and Representative JIM RAMSTAD, have worked exhaustively to complete the mission that Congress embarked upon more than 10 years ago through the passage of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. That 1996 act authorized for 5 years partial parity by mandating that the annual and lifetime dollar limit for mental health treatment under group health plans offering mental health coverage be no less than that for physical illnesses.

H.R. 1424, introduced by Representatives KENNEDY and RAMSTAD, will fully ensure equity in coverage for mental illness and substance abuse disorders by requiring that group health plans with mental health coverage offer that coverage without the imposition of discriminatory financial requirements or discriminatory treatment limitations. The bill also protects against discrimination by diagnosis and requires plans to cover all mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Mental illnesses are biologically based disorders, and there is no reason we should affirmatively provide protections to a student with depression or a young adult with schizophrenia, but not a child with autism or an elderly person with dementia. The bill also requires equality in out-of-network coverage. Again, a plan need not offer out-of-network coverage, but if it does for medical conditions, it should for mental illnesses as well. There are many good actors that already offer equity in care. However, some try and create a phantom network of providers, where doctors in the network have long waiting lists or are not appropriate to treat certain illnesses.

Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the United States for individuals between the ages of 15 and 44. But many health disorders are very treatable illnesses. H.R. 1424 would allow those individuals and families struggling to cope with the diverse array of illnesses which fall under the category of mental illness to have greater access to affordable care in order to alleviate the tremendous burden that these conditions can cause.

Furthermore, H.R. 1424 will help to allow individuals that have been disabled by mental health and addiction disorders to acquire the treatment that they need in order to once again become productive members of society.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the passage of this important legislation which will ensure the equitable treatment of very serious diseases.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to also thank the two sponsors of this legislation, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Ramstad. If any of you had been in Trenton, New Jersey, the day when Mr. Kennedy held a hearing, to see the compassion that he brought to the hearing, to hear him tell his personal story, to see those who are advocates for the bill in my State to show up and basically explain why the type of discrimination that exists now with regard to mental health coverage should not continue.

I think Mr. Kennedy said on the floor today that this is a civil rights issue, and that is true. People may doubt that a lot of discrimination continues to exist about mental illness, and certainly we have come a long way, there is no question about that, but the fact of the matter is that the discrimination continues. And although we have made some progress in terms of the Federal law, and even different States have passed legislation that is somewhat similar to this, the bottom line is that we don't have absolute equality or equity at this point, and we need to make sure that if there is going to be mental health coverage, it covers all types of mental health illnesses as well as substance addiction. In addition to that, we want to make sure that the same is true, whether you are in or out of the health care network.

These two gentlemen, my colleagues Mr. Ramstad and Mr. Kennedy, have been working on this bill for such a long time, and it really is a tribute to them and to Paul Wellstone that we are about to pass this bill. We commit, myself and the other chairmen of our respective committees, that we will not only pass this, but we will make sure that we do a bill that we can conference between the two Houses and get it to the President and hopefully get him to sign it before the end of this session.

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