Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this long overdue bipartisan legislation, and I want to commend and thank our colleagues, Patrick Kennedy and Jim Ramstad, for their leadership on this very important issue that is so important to millions of Americans around this country.

The bill before us today is the product of their determination, perseverance and passion. They traveled across this great land holding field hearings listening to Americans from all walks of life. I had the privilege of hosting one of those hearings in my congressional district. The message from that hearing, as with other hearings from around the country, was very clear--Congress needs to end insurance discrimination in mental health care.

Both common sense and simple fairness dictate that mental health diseases be treated on an equal footing with other conditions. Unfortunately, employer-provided health care set stricter treatment limits and imposed higher out-of-pocket costs for mental health care for many years. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 will reverse this practice and ensure that group health plans do not charge higher co-payments, coinsurance, deductibles, and do not lower day and visit limits on mental health and addiction care than for medical and surgical care.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is completely paid for. Let us honor the spirit of Paul Wellstone and pass this much-needed legislation. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote for it.

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